


Dimension Shunting

by NarahSelson



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-12
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-01-12 02:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 23,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1180694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NarahSelson/pseuds/NarahSelson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Valkyrie is shunted to an alternate dimension and meets Mevolent, Caelan and Vengeous. The villains are planning something though, what happens when they return home WITH Valkyrie? Skulduggery and Valkyrie are up for one heck of a challenge . . . VALDUGGERY.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1. Shunted

Valkyrie woke up on a Monday morning to the familiar sound of her temporary alarm.

“Wake up Valkyrie! We’ve got things to do, places to go, people to meet,” said Skulduggery Pleasant, “And . . . research to do! Isn’t it exciting! You can barely contain yourself! Come on let’s go!  
  
Valkyrie sighed. This was all Nadir’s fault that she needed Skulduggery to watch her while she slept, just in case she shunted. Stupid shunting. Stupid Nadir. Oh well, at least it meant she wouldn’t shunt alone. In some ways, Skulduggery reminded her of Gordon. They had the same sense of humor and they were both like a parent to her. She was lucky she had Skulduggery, but right now he was being himself, incredibly irritating and at the worst possible times, like right now at 6 am in the morning. On a Monday.

“Skulduggery, i’s 6:00 in the morning. On a Monday,” she said.   
“I am well aware of that,” he said.   
“Why are you waking me up at this hour to do research?” she said.   
“Because I want to find out more about your shunting problem,” Skulduggery said patiently.   
  
Valkyrie groaned. “Fine, but let me get dressed first,” she said. She got dressed into jeans, her special jacket and her boots. She then floated down from the window sill to join Skulduggery. She gasped. Her ride was a hippy van.

“Skulduggery! Where’s the car!” she exclaimed.   
“Aaaaahhhh, well it was stolen,” he said trying to avoid her glare.   
“What! By who?!” she gasped.    
“Well now Valkyrie, that is a very good question, but not one that needs to be answered now. Well, some hippy dude lent it this van to me. Well, actually I stole it but borrowing and stealing are the same thing right?” he said. She shook her head slowly.   
“Hippy vans and research, my life is beyond glamorous,” she said as she got into the car.   
“It’s good to see that you’re pleased,” he said. She glared at him.   
“I was being sarcastic,” she said.   
“So was I,” he said tilting his head to the side. She eventually smiled.   
“Shut up,” she said jokingly as they drove to the sanctuary.

They were almost there when Skulduggery stopped the car suddenly.  
  
“Why did you stop?” she said questioningly.   
“I didn’t, I think we’re out of gas,” he said, “But don’t worry, there’s some spare gas in the boot, I’ll just fill her up.”

She sighed as he got out of the van but as soon as he closed the door, her arm started throbbing. She screamed at Skulduggery that she was about to shunt but he couldn’t. She found a spare piece of paper and pen and quickly scribbled a note that she had shunted and put it on his seat before everything started fading as she shunted. She opened her eyes and looked around. She was in a broom closet. She opened the door and peeked outside and realised where the broom closet was, Mevolent’s castle. Oh crap, she thought. She got out of the closet and ran soundlessly down the corridor when she heard footsteps very close behind her. She whirled around and elbowed whoever it was in the face. He grunted and kicked her in the shins and then he had his hands around her throat.

“Who the hell are you pretty? Spying for the Resistance were you?” said Baron Vengeous.  
“Oh dear, out of all people, why does it have to be the guy that can make people explode from the inside out?” she muttered.   
“What did you say?” he barked at her.   
“You smell funny,” she said before kicking him in the groin and trying to escape from his iron grip on her but failing.  
“Do you know who I am little girl?” he spat.  
“Yep, and you are seriously irritating the heck out of me Baron. Honestly, I much preferred you when you were dead,” she said.  
“Shut up! I’m taking you to see Mevolent. Have fun getting tortured Resistance spy!” he said as he finally released her of his iron grip and cuffed her hands.

Valkyrie rolled her eyes.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” she said.

Vengeous dragged her down several corridors and a flight of stairs before they got to Mevolent’s throne room where he was sitting in a bath of blood. When he saw Valkyrie and Vengeous he stepped out of the bath naked showing multiple wounds all over his body.

“My lord, I have found this resistance spy lurking around the castle,” said Vengeous somewhat disgusted at his master’s current state.

“You may leave now Baron,” said Mevolent.   
“Yes my lord,” he said closing the door.

Mevolent stood and faced her. He was definitely not what Valkyrie expected, well, he was naked but he looked quite average an ordinary. She had expected someone more scary and sinister looking. Mevolent looked like a normal guy, except for his eyes. His eye were black like bottomless pits and they had a tinge of red around them.

Seeming to read her mind, Mevolent said, “Not what you expected? Did you expect me to be scarier?”

“Err, you are scary, you just don’t look it, you know, seeing as you’re like, um, naked,” she stuttered.

“Well, you should be scared little resistance spy, would you like to look like me after being tortured for hours,” he said gesturing to all his bleeding wounds.

“For the last time! I’m not from the Resistance!” she exclaimed. He didn’t say anything for a while but continued to stare at her.

“What?” she said.

“You’re not from here are you,” he muttered. Valkyrie stared at him refusing to answer.

“Oh well, I’ll just have to find out who you are the hard way,” he said moving toward her at an astonishing pace. She turned to see who it was, hoping that Skulduggery had somehow shunted with her, but it wasn’t him, it was Caelan.

“Oh hell,” she said.


	2. 2.

Caelan. What the heck was he doing here?  
“Valkyrie,” he screamed causing Mevolent to turn away from Valkyrie and look at Caelan.  
“You are from the resistance! Guards! Get them! I am too weak in this current state,” he bellowed. Caelan broke her cuffs, grabbed her and broke into a run. Valkyrie shot fireballs behind her as they ran trying to ignore the fact that her dead ex-boyfriend who was a vampire was running beside her, but one of the guards got her with his sword. It got her on the head and she swore. They burst out of the great iron doors of the castle and the guards gave up the chase but they kept running until they reached some sort of cottage. They stepped inside and Caelan noticed the big gash on her head.  
“Are you okay?” he said concerned.  
“I…I…I’m fine, err, and how the heck did you end up here. I kind of like drowned you in a sea of, you know, salt water?!” she said really quickly.   
“Well, you killed me for a good reason. When you killed me, well, I don’t think you did. You basically killed the vampire side of me and sent me to here. I didn’t understand where I was, but sooner or later I figured it out. I’m in another dimension, a different reality, a different world. Oh, and I forgive you for trying to kill me,” he said.  
“Seriously?! I like full on killed you! I wanted you to die, I never wanted you to breathe again and you’re forgiving me? How the hell does that work?” she said.  
“Anyway,” he said avoiding my question, “How did you get here?” For a minute Valkyrie was stunned. She couldn't believe that he was still alive, and she couldn’t believe that he was being so kind to her.  
“Silas Nadir, the dimension shunter, did something to me and I shunt over here at random times. If I’m not careful I could bring someone else back that I don’t want in our dimension like Mevolent, if he was touching me at the time,” she said trying to avoid his gaze, “How is it that you didn't die? I’m glad to have you alive you know, because around here in this dimension, you’re about the only sane person.”  
Valkyrie didn’t really believe the last part yet, but she said it anyway.  
“Oh, and if you’re not a vampire anymore, what the heck are you?” she said.  
“I was an elemental before I was changed into a vampire and, well, I’m back to being an elemental now,” he said and shrugged.  
She smirked, “No more weird obsessions with me?”  
He looked horrified at that. “Good God no! You’re way too funny for me!” He started laughing then.  
“Oh shut up,” she laughed.  
She felt the familiar throb and knew that she was going to shunt back soon. Caelan noticed, and just before they shunted, he reached out and grabbed Valkyrie’s shoulders. No no no no! That wasn’t supposed to happen! The world flashed and she was suddenly standing on Skulduggery’s driveway where Skulduggery himself was standing holding the paper. He noticed Caelan’s hands on her shoulders and looked up at Valkyrie who was glaring at Caelan. He tilted his head.   
“What the bloody hell is going on?” he said.  
“Err, well, Caelan’s not dead or a vampire anymore,” she said.   
“Well duh, Captain Obvious, he’s certainly not dead,” he said and then frowned, “Wait, you said he’s not a vampire.”  
“Correct.”  
“Okay . . . Let’s go inside, we have some serious talking to do.” They went inside, Skulduggery eyeing Caelan suspiciously and Valkyrie explained what happened to her and so did Caelan.  
“Well what about Valkyrie? She killed, um, tried to kill you. Don’t you, like, I don’t know, um, want to kill her, for revenge?” Skulduggery said.   
“I am no longer a vampire anymore so technically, she saved me by trying to kill me,” Caelan replied smoothly.   
“Okay then, so what do we do now?” she said.   
“We wait for Kitana and her friends strike again. We need to know if they have a motive . . . unless you want to do more research?” he said.   
“No thanks, I’m going home. How long was I gone, it felt like only a couple of hours.”  
“A day.”  
“Crap! Mum’s gonna kill me, I’ve got to go! See you tomorrow!” She ran off toward her house and left Caelan and Skulduggery. Hang on a minute, her parents thought she was at a friend’s house for a sleepover. Well, there was no need to run. She thought about the events that had occurred that day and realised that things could have gone drastically wrong but didn’t. She had tried to kill Caelan, end his life. He could have easily killed her, but he didn’t, and what was with the change from a vampire to an elemental? Messed up, she thought. That was some messed up poo.


	3. Caelan

Valkyrie stared at her reflection in the mirror for a while before touching it. A wave of memories flooded her mind, the reflection had had a pretty boring day of maths, business, double Japanese, study of Religion and Science classes, but wait, what was that? Valkyrie had felt something strange tingling in the back of her mind. She searched her memories and tried to grasp onto one in particular. The reflection was talking to a man who was dressed all in black. The way he stood, unnaturally still, gave away that he was a vampire. She saw the refection talking to the man and suddenly it stopped. It was like a glitch in the reflection the scene kept jumping skipping parts and replaying. She looked up at the reflection who had just stepped out of the mirror and the reflection greeted her with, “Hello Valkyrie, good bye Valkyrie!” and it threw a surprisingly strong punch at her nose which made a terrible crack.  
“What the hell are you doing?! That hurt like hell!” Valkyrie yelled at the reflection holding her nose.   
“Well, let’s just say that I’ve gone rogue,” it said as it tried and failed to punch her again in the gut. This time however, she was ready, and grabbed her fist and spun it around in a painful position.  
“Okay, that is just about the dumbest thing I think I’ve ever heard. You have absolutely no powers whatsoever, you’re completely ordinary, plain and stupid. Besides, we don’t need 2 evil versions of me running around. What’s the point of all this,” she asked bewildered.  
“You’ll find out,” it said. And then it vanished out of thin air. Poof. Gone. Valkyrie heard a strange noise coming from directly above her and looked up. Really, she thought, it’s on the roof now. How the heck did it even get there? One minute it was being held captive in a pretty difficult lock position and now it was on the roof. It then shot a beam of white light at Valkyrie that she certainly didn’t see coming. Luckily it missed, but then the reflection leapt off the ceiling and lunged towards her tackling her to the ground. A knife materialised out of nowhere into it’s hand and it swung it’s sharp edge at Valkyrie who was not so lucky this time and got struck in the chest. She cried out in pain, and fell to her hands and knees clutching her stomach. The pain was so unbearable, it didn’t feel like a knife had stabbed her but a chainsaw that had stabbed her, like the chainsaw was on fire too. She turned her head at the reflection who winked at Valkyrie and jumped out of her open window. Valkyrie clutched at the pocket in her pants, trying to dig out her phone. Every movement she made was painful. Finally she managed to grab her iPhone from her pocket and called the first person she could think of which was Skulduggery. She waited while the phone started ringing. Pick up the phone, come on and just pick it up, she thought desperately. Eventually he did and she whispered into the phone with a croaky voice and with all the strength she could muster, “Skulduggery, help, at Gordon’s,” and then she let the darkness overcome her and drag her down into unconsciousness.  
When she woke up she was in the medical bay in the Sanctuary. To her surprise, Caelan and Skulduggery were sitting together quietly talking outside. It seemed strange as Skulduggery hated Caelan and would normally have kicked him out of the hospital by now but no such luck. She sat up and Skulduggery and Caelan noticed her and came over to her bed.  
“Are you okay?” Caelan said at the same time as Skulduggery. He glared at him.   
“That’s my line,” Skulduggery grumbled.   
“I’ll survive, I’m a bit peeved off at the reflection. Look I know it’s just a reflection, but it was different, sort of like we were friends,” she said sadly. She coughed and grimaced at the pain in her chest.   
“Valkyrie, that knife had very strong magical capabilities,” Caelan said worriedly.   
“Well duh, no normal knife could have hurt that much,” She said getting frustrated.   
“I know, but it could be permanent,” he said patiently.   
“What? I’ll never be able to wear a bikini again? Damn,” she said with a hint of sarcasm.  
“Valkyrie this is serious. We don’t know what kind of effects it’ll have on you. It could kill you,” Skulduggery said.  
“Well it can’t be that bad,” she said. Skulduggery tilted his head at her. “If it was going to kill me, Darquesse would have stepped in, but she didn’t. I couldn’t even hear her voice.”  
“Hold on a second! The reflection had magic. Frickin’ magic! Maybe Darquesse has somehow become a part of the reflection!” she gasped.  
Skulduggery looked at Caelan and they both nodded.  
“Well this sucks,” she sighed.  
“It does and by the way, your chest is glowing bright orange,” Skulduggery said worriedly.  
“WHAT! Why were you looking that direction anyway?!” said Valkyrie.   
“Well, you were stabbed with an enchanted sword and it is a REALLY bright orange, like an Oompa Loompa,” he said.   
“You are so immature,” she said getting up and then screamed.  
She felt the worst pain she had ever felt, in her chest. She thrashed around and howled in pain, tears blurring her vision. The pain was like a thousand knives on fire twisting inside her chest. Caelan rushed to her side and when he touched her shoulder all that terrible pain went away. She sighed in relief, maybe she was just going mad. Wait . . . how can you JUST be mad? You can’t, she smiled inwardly. Caelan let go and the pain suddenly kicked in twice as worse. He touched her and the pain went away.   
“Are you all right?” Caelan said concerned.  
“Okay but for the love of whatever God you believe in, DON’T LET GO,” she said, “Why though?”  
Skulduggery didn’t say anything but stared into space.  
“Skulduggery? What do you think,” she said. He finally looked up.   
“Can I please try touching you?” Skulduggery said.  
“Err . . . yeah,” she said, “I guess you can try.”  
“3,2,1,” he counted down.  
Caelan let go and Skulduggery placed his hand on her shoulder. It felt like she had been hit by a truck, she screamed and Caelan placed his hand back on her shoulder. Skulduggery looked somewhat upset.  
“Sorry for hurting you,” he said.  
“The pain was different this time, it was like being hit by a truck,” she said. This didn’t make Skulduggery feel any better. He turned to Caelan.  
“You’re going to have to stay with her 24/7. Don’t try anything . . . unnecessary,” he glared at Caelan walking out of the hospital swiftly.  
“Wait! Skulduggery!” she called out.  
“It’s ok, obviously, you need him more than me now,” he growled then said in a softer tone, “Sorry Valkyrie, even though there are no hormones floating around this skeleton body, it still happens.”  
Valkyrie didn’t know what to say but turned around holding Caelan’s hand feeling worms having a disco in her stomach at his touch, why was she suddenly all fluttery around him? And started walking home.


	4. 4

When they reached Gordon’s mansion, Valkyrie realised something. If she had to let Caelan touch her all the time, she’d have to sleep with him, shower with him, and go to the bathroom with him and . . . everything. She wondered why Caelan had to touch her, why not Skulduggery? She’d have preferred to be with Skulduggery right now . . . have him touching her and not Caelan.   
Whoa, whoa, whoa Valkyrie, what are you thinking? You’d prefer to have Skulduggery touch you all the time, sleep with you, shower with you and do everything with you? Why the sudden change of emotion? First you felt nervous around Caelan, and now you feel the same about Skulduggery? Jeezes, what the heck is your problem? All these thoughts stirred around in her head when she suddenly noticed Caelan staring at her.  
“What?” she asked.   
“Err, I kind of need the bathroom,” he said his eyes flicking everywhere but at her.   
“Oh for Pete’ sake!” she said walking with him into the bathroom, “I won’t look, promise.”  
She turned around feeling incredibly awkward as she could hear him peeing. 

“All done,” he said with half a smile on his face. She glared at him. He didn’t seem to notice.  
“Hey, do you want to go see a movie,” he said with a smile on his lips. He’s not the same as he was, he’s not a vampire, she kept telling herself. She stood there frozen for a minute but then finally answered.  
“Sure, what should we go see?” she asked.  
“What about ‘The Mortal Instruments’?” he said.  
“Sure, they’re really good books,” she said feeling somewhat excited at her “date” with Caelan.   
She was about to go upstairs to get ready, but remembered her predicament and thought against it, she didn’t want him to see her getting changed. Things were already awkward between them, she didn’t want to complicate it. They walked out the door holding hands and got in her car that she had recently got from her parents. It was difficult getting in, but was they were in, it was quite easy to drive the car with his hand over hers controlling the gear stick and her free hand using the steering wheel. They reached the cinema and decided to buy some food and drink to take into the cinema. They chose to share a large pepsi and share some popcorn. They paid at the counter avoiding the glare that the counter lady was giving her when she paid with her credit card, Caelan’s hand entwined with hers.   
All in all, it was a good movie, the actors actually matched the characters in the book, which, she thought, was pretty rare.

After the movie they went to the restaurant ‘Heart’ and they both ordered a steak with a side of chilli chips. Both had commented on how the waitress looked a lot like Valkyrie. She didn’t want to think about the reflection and said to Caelan,  
“I feel so incredibly strange, I killed you and yet here we are, sitting here talking about it. I’m a cold blooded killer,” she sighed. Caelan squeezed her hand and said to her, “You’re not a killer, it’s not your fault that I was a psycho, that was way too obsessed with you.”  
Suddenly, he leaned forward and kissed her and she wasn’t sure she liked it.  
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed.  
“Umm, it’s kind of hard to avoid unless you want to suffer unimaginable pain,” he growled.  
Suddenly, Skulduggery walked into the restaurant holding his gun, pointed at Caelan.   
“Don’t you dare do anything like that to her again,” he growled. Caelan let go of her hand and surprisingly there wasn’t any pain.  
“What the,” she muttered. She turned around facing Caelan, “I was never in any actual pain was I?”  
“Nope, you only thought you did,” he smiled evilly at her. She felt a dull throb in her arm and realised she was going to shunt again.

“I’m about to shunt,” she said to Skulduggery. He came towards her and placed a hand on her shoulder.   
(Things are about to get seriously confusing)  
Seeing, that she was shunting, Caelan grabbed her and kissed her, hard. The waitress ran at them while Skulduggery roared and tried to get Caelan off Valkyrie. The waitress touched Valkyrie’s shoulder and they all shunted.  
They all fell over at once and no one was holding onto her anymore. Seeing that a fight was about to happen, Valkyrie shouted, “STOP! Everyone just stop for just a minute!”   
Caelan untangled himself from Skulduggery and went to stand next to the waitress. Skulduggery stood up too and all at once, she figured a few things out.   
1\. The waitress was the reflection   
2\. The reflection was evil  
3\. Caelan was now standing next to the reflection and it looked as if they were some kind of team  
4\. Skulduggery had been watching them the whole time in the restaurant.  
“Okay, so you’re working with my reflection whose evil, so you’re evil,” she said to Caelan.  
“Right you are,” he grinned maliciously at her.  
“And I am on your side and will always be, we’re a team so, yeah,” Skulduggery put in.  
“True dat,” she said and kicked the reflection in the shins, but instead of fighting her, both the reflection and Caelan ran off.  
“What the flopping heck just happened?” she said.  
“Poo,” he said, “I knew we couldn’t trust that bastard so I followed you both. Sorry by the way.”  
“That’s alright, I’m so glad you’re here with me,” she said.  
Skulduggery stepped toward her and gave her a hug, a bony, familiar and yet comfortable hug.   
“We’re in this together you know,” he murmured into her hair.  
“I know,” she said, “I need to ask you something though.”  
“What?” he asked.  
“Did you feel jealous when Caelan was with me in the restaurant?” He didn’t say anything for a moment.  
“Yes,” he said eventually, “I was, and I haven’t felt this way since I was with my wife Valkyrie. I’ve developed feelings toward you and you probably think that it’s wrong. I know it is, but . . . I think I love you.”  
“WOW,” she said and she leaned forward brushing her lips ever so gently against his teeth, “We really are ‘the detective duo now’”  
He laughed softly, “I’m so glad you feel the same way.”  
She hugged him close again.   
“Me too Skulduggery, me too.”


	5. 5

We walked along a lonely footpath for a while, wondering what we would do about the stupid reflection and . . . Caelan. She grimaced at his name. He hadn’t really changed, she betted that he wasn’t really an elemental, but really, still a vampire. How could she have been so stupid and gullible? Skulduggery looked at her questioningly.  
“What’s wrong?” he said. She shook her head.   
“I let my guard down, I should have known that son of a lobster wasn’t trustworthy. He’s the same more or less, but now his uncontrollable obsession is killing me,” she sighed, exhausted.   
“Did you really just say son of a lobster?” he said.   
“Yep,” she said.  
“Hmm, I’ll have to use that sometime. Valkyrie, it isn’t your fault okay? He came back seeming like a pretty decent guy, but you know, these things just happen. Sort of like China I guess.” They were then interrupted by a middle aged man with an afro and really big, old fashioned sunglasses. He looked like an older and way lesser cooler version of Red Foo.   
“Oi! You lot! What the devil do you think you’re doing! Do you want to get caught by the Redhoods? The sense – wardens?” he yelled at them with a lisp.  
“How do we know we can trust you,” she said immediately glaring at him. Skulduggery tilted his head at her.   
“Well, I saw that little show with your evil twin and that Edward guy. I know you ‘re not from here, just, look, do you want somewhere safe to stay, because I’ve got room,” he said.  
“Edward?” said Skulduggery questioningly.   
“Cullen, the vampire from the movie Twilight with that really bad actor Kristen Stewart,” she said to Skulduggery who looked even more confused.   
“You watch Twilight here?” he said, “How is that even possible?”  
“Someone left the book Twilight on this bench and I decided to read it,” the man said. Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie demanding an explanation. Eventually, she cracked.  
“Jeez, you’re such a good detective! Okay, I had to get rid of that awful book so I left it here,” Valkyrie said. Skulduggery smiled.  
“I know, I am such a great detective, aren’t I?” he said and she giggled. Oh my gosh, since when did she giggle? Since you kissed the skeleton, she thought.  
“Err . . . okay then, well, my name is Brandon –Walton Digglestonapplusfalapokchoy le Rey,” he said making his lisp even more noticeable.  
“Whoa, that’s a mouthful,” she muttered.   
“But you can just call me Banga,” he said happily, “Follow me!” They followed him into an old brick house sitting on top of a hill and went inside.   
“What are you?” said Skulduggery.  
“I’m an Adept, I can control gravity and I guess I can fight. Now for the really interesting story . . . Who the heck are you?” Banga said.   
“My name is Skulduggery Pleasant and this is my partner Valkyrie Cain and we are both elementals,” Skulduggery said. He then began telling Banga our story about the reflection, the dimension shunter, and about, she cringed, Caelan.  
“Well, my golly gosh! You must be very tired, I’ve got 1 spare room upstairs so you’ll have to share it and I’ll go get you some food,” Banga said rushing off. Valkyrie tried not to laugh at his strange lisp, it was very hard to contain, and then she remembered what he had said about sharing a room with Skulduggery.  
Valkyrie blushed.  
“You’re blushing like a tomato,” Skulduggery said.  
“Shut up, vegetables don’t blush,” she said.  
“Well, I actually did meet an evil vegetable once.”  
“And did it blush?”  
“No.”  
“Well there you go,” she huffed, “I don’t mind you know, sharing a room.”  
“I know,” he grinned his skeleton grin that only she seemed to understand, “Besides, it’s not like I’ll be actually sleeping, I’ll be meditating.”

Banga came back into the small dining room area with a plate stacked with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  
“Hope you aren’t allergic,” he grinned setting down the plate of sandwiches.  
“My goodness, I wish I could eat,” said Skulduggery. Valkyrie put down her sandwich feeling guilty.   
“Sorry, I feel so guilty about eating in front of you when you can’t do that,” said Valkyrie.   
“Valkyrie, trust me, I’m FINE, I’ve been a skeleton for a while now so I’m kind of used to it,” he said reassuringly.  
She still wasn’t eating her sandwich. Skulduggery sighed, but then smiled.  
“I guess I’ll just have to feed you myself,” he grinned wickedly.  
“What? How?” she said confused.   
“Like this,” he said and picked up a sandwich. He then made it float over toward her mouth and said, “Open up wide, here comes the aeroplane!”   
At this she started giggling and could not stop, it was kind of like she was having a seizure but eventually took a bite of the sandwich earning a smile from Skulduggery. She didn’t even realize that Banga had been watching the whole time. He grinned at them.  
“So, are you two, together,” he said leaning forward in his chair. Valkyrie shifted in her chair awkwardly.   
“Err. . .” she stuttered and looked at Skulduggery.  
“Yes,” they said together at the same time.  
“You two are very cute together you know, how long?” he questioned.  
“Umm, well literally like 5 minutes ago,” Valkyrie said.  
“Wow! Really! You two look like peas and carrots, like two peas in a pod!” he guffawed.  
“Oh my gosh, he sounds like Forest Gump,” she muttered to Skulduggery.  
“Forest Gump? Who’s that?”Banga said.   
“How can you have read the Twilight book but not seen Forest Gump!” said Skulduggery shaking his head.   
Valkyrie yawned, “I’m tired, I think I’ll just go to bed now.”  
Skulduggery got up. “I’ll come with you.”  
They walked up the stairs to a very small, boring room with a low bed and a chair that looked pretty comfy. Valkyrie sank straight into the bed and it was surprisingly soft and comfortable.  
“Night Skully,” she said with a slight grin.  
“Please don’t call me that again, seriously, just NO,” Skulduggery said.  
“He he, I love annoying you, it’s really fun,” she said. He started humming softly and she soon fell asleep.  
She was in a dark corridor tied to a chair. She jumped and tried to get herself untied, but the ropes only grew tighter. Someone was walking toward her. She squinted her eyes to see who was coming, but it was too dark.  
“Hi Valkyrie,” said the man. She then realized who it was.  
“Leave me alone Caelan!” she moaned.   
He threw a knife at her then and it nicked her ear. She grunted.  
“Will you just stop?!” she said.   
“No, you have no idea what I’m doing right now,” he grinned maliciously.  
“Err, yeah I do, you just kind of threw a knife at me,” she said.   
He threw another knife at her and it sank into her knee. This time she screamed, her knee was dripping with blood. She reached down and grimaced, yanking the knife out of her knee. She threw it at him angrily and he dodged it easily still grinning. He walked toward her and untied her from the chair. She tried to get up and run at him but she collapsed on the ground. He hit her over and over. Her nose was bleeding and blood matted her head.   
“I’m trying to release Darquesse,” he said peering down at her, “Its working isn’t it. Her voice is getting louder isn’t it.”   
He was right, she was literally screaming at her to release her.   
You know you wanna  
Shut up, she thought.  
She felt someone shake her shoulder and she awoke suddenly from the nightmare staring at Skulduggery’s concerned face.  
“You were screaming about Caelan and you kept saying my name,” he said.   
Valkyrie started crying, so she turned her face away from Skulduggery, embarrassed at how vulnerable she was acting. Skulduggery gently turned her chin back around so she was facing him.   
“What happened?” he said gently. She told him about her horrific dream, the knife in her knee, Darquesse and the hitting. He got up from his chair and lay down on the bed next to her putting his arms around her and gently rocking her. She snuggled closer to him and cried silently.  
“Don’t go,” she said to him.   
“I won’t, I’m staying right here,” he said softly, “Sleep.” She shook her head at him.  
“I don’t want to,” she said, “The dream, it was so vivid, so real.” He held her close to him and started softly singing Me and Mrs Jones and she fell asleep to the sound of his soft, velvet voice. She slept the rest of the night without nightmares, she dreamt of happy things.


	6. 6

Her head was still buried in his shoulder when she woke up. She looked up at Skulduggery and smiled at him.   
“Thank you,” she said softly. He frowned, “For what?”  
“For staying,” she whispered. He hugged her close to his body and gently rocked her back and forth.  
“My pleasure, it didn’t look like you had any more bad dreams when I was here,” he said smiling. She frowned this time.  
“That’s the thing though, I don’t think they were dreams, they were way too realistic. I could feel Darquesse, I heard her voice. How could she possibly appear in a dream? Caelan, how did he know about Darquesse? Skulduggery, I believe that something evil is at work here, it’s too much of a coincidence that they both appear in the same dream after what’s just happened.”  
“Visions, you might have been having visions. We can talk to Cassandra if you like,” he said.   
She shivered slightly, “Okay, but I have a really big conscience and I kind of burned that dream catcher thingy . . . she can’t read minds can she?”  
“Not unless you want her to,” he said tilting his head at her guilty conscience, “Why did you burn it?”  
She looked up at him, “Well, it was really creepy, muttering and whispering while I was asleep. Who wouldn’t want to burn it?”

“Good point, let’s go downstairs and get some breakfast into you. Then we’ll have to decide what to do about the reflection and Caelan.”  
“Okay,” she said yawning.   
They walked down the stairs to meet Banga. He was sitting down at the same table that they had sat in yesterday eating a banana.  
“Morning you two! How did ya sleep?!” he said smiling revealing missing teeth which Valkyrie hadn’t noticed before. That explains the lisp, she thought.  
“Like a log,” she replied, “Turns out, sleeping in this dimension is the same as sleeping in the other one.”  
“What about you Skulduggery?” he said.  
“I’m a skeleton, I don’t sleep,” he replied.  
“Okay then, anyways, would you like something to eat Valkyrie? A banana? Toast? Strawberries? Yoghurt?” Banga said rushing into the small kitchen.  
“Just a banana thanks,” she said.  
“And then I think we’ll be off, we detectives have things to do, world’s to save, shunting to do and most importantly, when we get back that is . . . Bentley’s to drive!” said Skulduggery. Valkyrie shook her head at him.  
“You’re such a goose!” Valkyrie ate her banana and thought about her reflection. It had gone off with Caelan running toward Mevolent’s castle. Stupid, she thought, it looks exactly like me and I’m not too popular with the evil ruler at the moment. Well, it actually does have a chance because it somehow has magic now. She frowned, what could the reflection possibly gain by going to the castle? Then it clicked. She turned around to face Skulduggery.  
“What?” he asked.  
“The Sceptre! They’re after the Sceptre! Reflection and Sparkles are freaking going after the Sceptre, Reflection can use magic now so it won’t have any trouble using it,” she said exasperatedly.   
“Hold on a second, only someone descended from the Ancients can use it and charge it,” said Skulduggery thoughtfully. Valkyrie started shaking her head furiously.  
“Yeah, but this bloody freak of nature is somehow using magic! What makes you think that it can’t just do some weird voodoo stuff with its weird magic and force the Sceptre to become it’s owner? Plus, it has evolved, it is basically an evil version of me! Oh my God! What are we gonna do, what are we gonna do, what are we gonna do!” she gasped.   
“Valkyrie, calm down,” he said lightly touching her shoulder.  
“How can I calm down?” she said running her hand through her hair.   
“Like this,” he said activating his façade and touching his lips to hers. She became slightly dizzy.  
“We are always in really bad situations, but heck, we ALWAYS WIN! This is what we’re going to do Valkyrie, we are going to go to that castle, beat the crap out of Sparkles, stop Reflection from taking that Sceptre, steal the thing for ourselves and escape reasonably uninjured and safe,” he said resting his chin on her head.  
“Okay,” she breathed, “That’s what we’re gonna do.”   
He smiled, glad she had gotten the point. Banga, who had been watching their conversation stared at Skulduggery wildly.  
“You’re going to the castle?! On a mission?” he said. They nodded.  
“Hmm, I’d like you to meet my daughter, she’s part of the Resistance and I believe she can help you with your mission,” Banga said thoughtfully.  
“Daughter?” Valkyrie asked.   
“Yes, her name is Nyx Forkes and, well, she was with the Resistance yesterday, so you didn’t get to meet her, here she is now.”  
A tall girl with bouncy brown hair and a wild smile came walking down the stairs. She was wearing black skinny jeans and a long, black coat that almost touched the floor. She was very fit, strong and she had the deepest blue green eyes. As she was walking down the stairs her gaze finally rested on Skulduggery and she fell down the remainder of the stairs.  
“Holy crap!” she said pointing at Skulduggery with trembling fingers.  
“Nyx,” Banga said, “Calm down, this is Skulduggery Pleasant and this is Valkyrie Cain. They’re going to Mevolent’s castle to stop some enemies of theirs and also to steal the Sceptre and I think they are going to need some help.”  
She slowly stood up, letting this new information sink in. Valkyrie stretched out her hand to Nyx.   
“Hi Nyx, nice to meet you. I’m Valkyrie Cain and I’m an elemental, I can also do a tad of Necromancy,” she said.  
“Hi Valkyrie, I’m Nyx Forkes and I have the power over music.”  
“The what?” said Skulduggery tilting his head to the side.  
“Well, when I sing, firstly, I sound exactly like the artist, even if they’re male and secondly, the words that I sing become real, er, sort of. They have a twist to them. For example, if I sung Whip my hair by Willow. I’ll show you. Um, you might want to move out the way,” Nyx said.  
They cleared a space in the small dining room Valkyrie and Skulduggery pressed themselves against the wall.   
Nyx frowned, “I need more space, come outside.”  
They followed her outside and she started to sing.  
I whip my hair back and forth, I whip my hair back and forth   
Her hair grew and transformed. Her once brown shoulder length hair had grown to about 10 metres long and the strands of hair were now golden whips. She whipped her whips and they cracked and smashed the ground, tearing it up. When she stopped singing, her hair shrunk back to its size and her hair was now brown again.  
“Wow, we have got one hell of a team here,” Skulduggery said impressed with his arm around Valkyrie’s shoulder.


	7. 7

“Okay guys, here’s the plan. We sneak up to the castle, Nyx singing Fade by Rhianna to make us invisible, quietly sneak up to the throne room, grab the sceptre and go,” said Skulduggery. Valkyrie frowned. It wasn’t going to be that easy.  
“What if we run into Caelan and the reflection?” she said.  
“Nyx and I can distract them long enough so that you can slip into the throne room and snatch the sceptre and, well, once we’ve got that we’re good. Zap and both of them are gone,” he said.  
“Hmm, what about Mevolent? Or Vengeous?” she said, “I can get past Caelan and the reflection, maybe Baron, but Mevolent? Probably not, not to mention Vile and it’s not like I can charm him back to this dimension’s Skulduggery.”  
“That’s why we are going to SNEAK,” he said then moved closer and whispered in her ear, “I didn’t tell you, but I’ve got the armour just in case.”  
“What? No you don’t. I think I would have noticed you carrying a giant briefcase around,” she said in amusement.   
He tilted his head at her and pulled back his shirt revealing his white ribcage. Inside was the case containing Lord Vile’s armour. She shook her head at him.  
“Well aren’t you just a smart cookie,” she said her mouth tilted up in a half smile.  
“Yes I am. I’m just brilliant. The most brilliant of them all. Attractive, smart, funny . . . just amazing. Such a nice suit, such an amazing skeletal frame. Do you want me to give you my autograph?” he said.  
“Oh bloody hell, what have I done?” she muttered.  
“Just made my Earth sized ego a Jupiter sized ego,” he said happily.  
“Anyway,” she said looking at Nyx now who was in a giggling fit at their conversation, “Are you all good with this?”  
“Yep! This is going to be GREAT! We are sooooo going to kick some butt,” she said bouncing up and down. Valkyrie smiled at her excitement.  
“Yes we are,” she said. Personally, she actually WANTED to run into Caelan and the reflection. Man she just wanted to ping pong their flopping faces. Give them the backhand and kick Caelan up his tush.  
“Let’s go then,” said Skulduggery.  
They set off toward the castle on foot, not invisible yet. Valkyrie looked around at all the houses. Most of them were cottages made of stone and mud. It looked as though there had once been a beautiful houses here, but were now burned down to nothing but ash and charred remains. She shivered. These people, mortals most likely had had lives. Children who went to school, who played in the back yard, laughed and rode their bicycles.   
They walked past an old shop with a closed sign leaning against the window. There was a pole just outside the shop and hanging off it was a sign for the shop. The shop was called Sarah’s Ice cream. She wondered how long it had been since anyone in this town had had ice cream.  
Suddenly everything went cold, as if Dementors from Harry Potter were coming. She rubbed her hands together for warmth.  
“What is it? Are you cold,” he asked. Nyx silenced him with a finger to her lips. Valkyrie turned around to see what Nyx was so flustered about.  
Oh no, a Sense Warden. They stayed silent as it walked past and –   
Crap! She was about to sneeze. She felt it tickling her nose, itching to be let out. Valkyrie couldn’t take it any longer and let out a soft, but definitely noticeable sneeze.   
Skulduggery flinched at the sound and she then knew that the Sense warden knew where they were.   
She then felt pain in her head. The Sense Warden was crawling around in her mind, but it wasn’t that that was making her head hurt, it was Darquesse. She called feel her tendrils of darkness reaching out and prying open the corners of her mind. She felt like her brain was being ripped apart. She screamed loudly and torturedly. She expected Skulduggery to come rushing to her side but he wasn’t. She looked across at him and discovered that he was in some kind of mind lock himself. He wasn’t screaming but she could tell from his skull shaking and shuddering, that he was in a lot of pain. Nyx was just staring at her in horror, but then her fighting skills kicked in.   
She jumped onto the pole and started swinging.  
What the hell is she doing? Then, Valkyrie understood when Nyx started singing.  
I came in like a wrecking ball  
Nyx’s body transformed into – literally, a wrecking ball. She swung down and smashed the Sense Warden and it exploded on impact. Immediately the pain stopped, and she bent over, holding her stomach and threw up all over the road. Nyx turned back into a human and immediately rushed over to her, as did Skulduggery.  
“Are you okay?” Nyx said holding her hand. Valkyrie shook it off.  
“I’m fine,” she said but gave Skulduggery a meaningful look, “I just wasn’t expecting that.”  
Nyx looked at her for a while but didn’t say anything. She knows it’s something else, she thought, but she’s not prying either.  
Skulduggery helped her up onto her feet and whispered in her ear, “Are you really okay?”  
“Darquesse,” she whispered back. He hugged her close to his body and she savoured the moment in his embrace, her body pressed against his and a moment later it was over. He turned to face Nyx, who had been awkwardly trying not to stare at Skulduggery and Valkyrie’s embrace.   
“You did well,” he said, “You must be really good at improvisation, to just come up with the right song in a flash.”  
She smiled, looking down.   
“Thanks.”  
“I love compliments too. They make me feel warm and fuzzy,” he said.  
“You’re a skeleton, how do you feel warm and fuzzy,” Valkyrie.  
“Oh shut up, way to ruin the moment Valkyrie. I imagine that I’m feeling warm and fuzzy.”  
“Oh . . . right. So silly of me not to know that,” she said with a smile.  
“Well, I think we should try and go the rest of the way invisible,” Nyx said, “We don’t want that to happen again.”  
“Yeah, but they are Sense Wardens. They don’t need to see us, they sense us,” said Valkyrie.  
Nyx frowned, “That makes sense, but as soon as the castle is in sight, we go invisible.”  
“Deal.”  
They walked for a while then along the road and she realized then, that all the run down cottages were gone and there were now beautiful houses with green grass was neat and recently mown.  
Skulduggery, who had been watching Valkyrie’s curious face said, “This is where all the sorcerers live. Just goes to show the amount of equality and peace in this place, a big fat zero.”  
“How come you don’t live here?” Valkyrie asked Nyx.  
“I’m from the Resistance, I don’t really want to live too close to my enemy,” she said bitterly.   
“Oh, right.”  
“And there’s the castle, Skulduggery, hold my left hand and Valkyrie, hold my right.”  
They held hands and she looked at Nyx expectedly.  
Things just ain't the same  
And I'm ready for change  
Go on, begone, bye bye, so long  
Can't you see that you're  
Fading, fading, fading, fading  
Away, away, away, away  
I opened up my eyes, and I finally realized  
Today, today, it's too late  
You're fading away   
Nyx repeated the chorus of the song ‘Fading’ by Rhianna over and over as they walked quietly to the castle. She has a beautiful voice, Valkyrie thought, I wish I had a beautiful voice. Then she realised that it wasn’t Nyx’s voice. Whatever she sung, she sounded like the artist, in this case, Rhianna. She wondered what her actual voice sounded like. They were at the doors now, and Nyx was trying to sing as softly as possible. Skulduggery raised his hand over the door and it sprung open.  
Now they were walking down the same corridor that she had been when she was captured by Baron Vengeous. They heard footsteps and they became deadly still. She saw who was coming and her blood went cold.  
Caelan.  
Skuluggery squeezed her hand with his free one. He was 10 metres away, 5, 3, 2. He was standing so close to her that she could reach out and touch him.  
He smiled then and she knew he could smell her. He shot his hand forward and grabbed her shoulder, holding her in front of him. They all became visible, because Nyx had stopped her singing. She was glaring at Caelan, and if looks could kill, well, let’s just say that they’d have one less problem to deal with. Skulduggery whipped out his gun and pointed it at Valkyrie, but then lowered it. He couldn’t shoot Caelan without hurting Valkyrie.  
“That’s right, lower the gun Pleasant,” he grinned smugly. He then pulled out a butcher knife from his pants and held it at Valkyrie’s throat. She tried wriggling out of his grip, but it was as strong and sure as iron.  
“A butcher knife? How the hell do you keep that in your pants?” she said trying to irritate him.  
He pressed the knife against her skin and beads of blood erupted from her skin.  
Skulduggery growled and Nyx ran at Caelan. Surprised, he let go of Valkyrie for just a second she escaped from his grasp and smacked her palm into his jaw and felt the bones break. He screamed and threw her with his vampire strength to the floor. Ow, she thought, I can’t wait to see the bruises I get from this.  
Meanwhile, Caelan took a swung at Nyx and she ducked swiping her legs at him, making him trip over. That was all Skulduggery needed because he came flying at Caean and pummelled him when he tried to get up. Caelan, however, was able to wriggle free and using his speed, swerved around Skulduggery, kicking at his spine. Valkyrie gasped when she heard bones break. Skulduggery did not get up. She ran at him using the air to propel herself faster and faster. She crashed into him and he was knocked off his feet. Valkyrie sat on him and smacked his face over and over. It was kind of like she was playing a game of ping pong . . . with his face. He had had enough and threw her into the wall. She kicked off from the wall and ran at him again. This time though, he was prepared. He grabbed her arm and using her own momentum to betray her, twisted it behind her back while her body flung forward. Her arm popped from her shoulder and broke. Valkyrie screamed and sank to the ground right next to Skulduggery. She watched from the ground, Nyx trying to fight off Caelan by herself. She started singing but Caelan cut her off by punching her in the mouth. Nyx was cuffed and


	8. 8

When Valkyrie woke up, she was quite surprised that her arm that had completely popped out of her shoulder and broken, was feeling fine and substantially stronger. She moved it up and down, side to side, and then flexed.  
“Wow, you have big muscles,” said Nyx who was looking down at her, “Is your arm better?” She nodded.  
“Okay, well, I’ll go and do Skulduggery now.” Nyx crawled over to Skulduggery who was leaning against the wall in what looked like a very uncomfortable position.  
“I healed you buy singing ‘Stronger’ by Kelly Clarkson,” she explained, “That arm should also be feeling a bit stronger than the other arm – that’s just a side effect I guess.”  
Well that explained it, she thought. Nyx placed her hand gently on Skulduggery’s spine and started singing:  
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger  
Stand a little taller  
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone  
What doesn't kill you makes you fighter  
Footsteps even lighter  
Doesn't mean I'm over 'cause you're gone  
Skulduggery gasped and then got up stretching his back. He bent over and did a few stretches, testing out the strength of his spine.   
“Well, it’ll take a bit more than what Caelan did to break this spine. I feel enormously stronger,” he said. Both Skulduggery and Valkyrie said their thanks and went on to plotting how they were going to get out.  
“Damn, can’t use magic either,” Skulduggery said.  
“I can though,” Nyx frowned, “Why do you think that is?”  
“Well, I’m guessing that this cell binds elemental magic and some kinds of adept magic, they may not have heard of your type of magic before, it’s quite unique.”  
Skulduggery looked at her proudly.  
“Well done, I didn’t even think of that,” he said fondly.  
“It’s just your great detective teaching skills,” she said smiling.  
“Indeed it is,” he said. Nyx groaned, “Cut it out. Caelan’s going to return soon with Mevolent and we need to escape this damn cell, or figure out a way to fight him!”  
But it was too late to do any plotting or scheming because Mevolent appeared in front of their cell, with Caelan, the reflection and Baron Vengeous.   
“Speak of the devil,” Valkyrie muttered.  
“At last, the great detective of the other dimension, Skulduggery Pleasant. My sources from the alternate dimension have told me about you. And Valkyrie Cain, we meet again, and for the last time,” Mevolent sneered.  
“Could ya get any more stereotypical?” Valkyrie muttered.  
“And you,” he pointed to Nyx, “I don’t know who you are, but that doesn’t matter. It’s Miss Cain, I’m after.”  
The reflection and Vengeous grabbed Skulduggery’s bound hands and forced him to kneel down. Caelan did the same to Nyx. Mevolent proceeded toward Valkyrie but she didn’t notice, her mind was ticking away, trying to figure out a way out of this mess.   
“Why do you need me?” she asked stalling for more time, “Surely detective Pleasant is more valuable than me?”  
“Thanks Valkyrie,” Skulduggery muttered. She shot him a significant look that said: Shut up, I’m trying to figure something out, and he shut up.  
“Well, yes he is valuable,” Mevolent laughed, “But he doesn’t have Darquesse.”  
Valkyrie felt like she had swallowed acid. She couldn’t breathe. She started gagging and Skulduggery saved her.  
“Who is this Darquesse you speak of?” he asked Mevolent.  
“Don’t play dumb Pleasant, I have people everywhere, even in your dimension reporting back to me. You know who Darquesse is. She is Valkyrie, well not completely. They are two different minds with two different objectives, in the one body. When Valkyrie suffers extreme pain, is an inch from death, she lets her take control. Darquesse is an extremely powerful being, a god, of destruction. What better person to have ruling at my side? Yes Pleasant, I plan to travel to your dimension, take over. Darquesse wants what I want, chaos. I want to kill all the mortals and rule over the sorcerers. My original idea to rule over both hasn’t really worked in this dimension, so why not try out my new idea in your dimension? With both Darquesse and my ultimate power using the Magic Mirror, we will destroy the mortals once and for all!” Mevolent ranted.  
“Holy crap,” Skulduggery said.   
Mevolent lunged at Valkyrie but was stopped and heaved back off her quite suddenly. 5 golden whips were curled around him tugging tighter and tighter.  
I whip my hair back and forth   
I whip my hair back and forth   
I whip my hair back and forth  
I whip my hair back and forth  
Willow’s auto tuned voice came from Nyx’s mouth and suddenly, they were fighting. No one had Valkyrie and because the cell door was open, her magic flowed back to her. She sent tendrils whipping out at Caelan who was attempting to stop Nyx from singing. He was too distracted to see it coming and his stomach was split open by the thick tendril of darkness erupting from Valkyrie’s hands. He swore at her and let go of Nyx running at Valkyrie. He flew at her and she simply side stepped out of the way and he smashed into the wall. He stayed there for a moment dazed.   
They needed Skulduggery so Valkyrie snapped her palm and a current of air swept the reflection and Vengeous off their feet. Skulduggery immediately snapped into action. He punched Vengeous in the face and threw him to the ground and did sent a kick into his face. Suddenly, his bones started squeaking and shuddering and she knew that he was trying to make Skulduggery explode.  
“No!” she yelled and sent a fireball at Vengeous. It didn’t hit him, but it distracted him long enough so that Skulduggery could throw him into the wall with Caelan.   
She could see the reflection sneaking up on Nyx. There was no way that Nyx could battle the both of them. Her whips weren’t working on Mevolent anymore because he dodged them as easily as Nyx whipped them so she tried a new tactic.  
I'm the cat with the bass and drum, going 'round like Bom Bom Bom!  
Her body twisted and stretched in a blur of orange and black. She had turned into a massive tiger. She took a swipe at Mevolent but he just threw her back at the wall. She kept lunging at him and eventually he had had enough. He screamed and stamped his foot down really hard. It was like a tremor of an earthquake. Valkyrie fell over and the world was now sideways. Nyx turned back into a human and fell while Mevolent ran at her with a knife and sliced off her hand. Nyx screamed and sank to the ground. Her hand was spurting out blood in a waterfall of blood. She could see bone jutting out and Valkyrie had to look away. Nyx however, was not done. She sung whip my hair and her hair grew back into golden whips.  
They whipped around Mevolent’s arm and her face was strained. She’s trying to rip his arm off in revenge, she thought. Then, her arm started throbbing.   
“Skulduggery I’m shunting!” she screamed. Everyone in the cell stopped what they were doing and grabbed onto her. She screamed, she was so so claustrophobic and this was just torture.   
With a flash, they were all back in Valkyrie’s modern dimension. Valkyrie screamed. Mevolent was there along with Vengeous, Caelan and the reflection. Caelan threw the butcher knife at her and just like her dream, it sunk into her stomach. Skulduggery picked her up and put her over his shoulders and ran with Nyx. They didn’t stop running until they were sure that they were well away from the evil villains. They found a barn to rest in and Nyx somehow had the strength to heal herself like she did to Valkyrie in the cell. She then healed Valkyrie and Skulduggery. Valkyrie and Nyx were shivering as they lay down in the surprisingly soft hay. They huddled together, sharing their warmth and Skulduggery watched over them, equally terrified of what the future might bring.


	9. 9

Valkyrie woke up and stretched her arms and legs. They were so stiff, they felt like pieces of bamboo, and if she stretched too much they would snap in half. She slowly got up and took a look around. They were in a barn. There was lots of hay everywhere, chickens and a tractor in the corner. How had they gotten there again? Oh. She remembered now. Mevolent and his gang of miscreants were back in this dimension looking for the Magic Mirror. What is the magic mirror?   
Skulduggery was standing at the door of the barn looking out at what Valkyrie realized was a beautiful sunrise. She walked over to him.  
“Are you all right after yesterday,” he said checking her for injuries.   
“Fine, just a bit shaken. I can’t get the image of Nyx’s hand out of my head,” she said shivering inwardly.  
“Yeah, that was a spectacular fight,” he said sarcastically.   
“We need to figure out our next move. They’re back, and they aren’t just here for vacation. What is the Magic Mirror?”  
He sighed holding her hand in his bony one, “The Magic Mirror is a magical artefact, much like the accelerator. A sorcerer is hooked up to it and well, it basically acts as a mirror, mirroring the sorcerer’s power. What then happens is the mirror stretches, expands across the land, wherever you want. It was used a long time before the war to establish peace within the magical community. The sorcerer using the mirror, had the power to calm people down and make them peaceful and friendly. He stretched the mirror to cover the entire globe. I fear Mevolent is using it for the extermination of the mortals, and, world domination.”  
There was something bugging her, an extra detail. What was it? What happened that could somehow connect with what was going on? Skulduggery began muttering to himself.  
“Why would he bring his servants down? He knew you were going to shunt over, but he’s Mevolent, he doesn’t NEED help.”  
And there it was.  
“Oh my grapes!” she said.  
“Do you have grapes? I’d love some!”  
“No,” she said irritatingly, “I’ve figured something out!”  
“That’s rare.”  
“Shut it!”  
“I’m kidding silly! What is it?”  
“Darquesse! He ordered Caelan to come to me in my dreams. He WANTS to let Darquesse out. In the dream, he was just testing whether I would crumble. He needs Darquesse to help him use the magic mirror! With both their power combined, they are unstoppable!”  
“Hmmm,” Skulduggery said, “That’s not good. But Valkyrie, you’re forgetting one thing, your willpower. You are tough, and you will not let this son of a lobster escape your mind. If you don’t want something to happen, you won’t let it happen. You have a way with things, they just WORK okay. You can do it!”  
She smiled but then frowned, “I’ll try.” He shrugged, “Better than nothing.”  
“I love it how you said ‘Son of a lobster’. I have influenced the world. I started this! In the future, swearing will be eradicated because everyone will be saying ‘Son of a lobster’. I’m just so damn brilliant,” she said.  
“Language,” Skulduggery said tilting his head slightly.  
“Fine, I’m just so lobster brilliant,” she said.  
“What do you have against lobsters?” he said. She shook her head and gave him a hug.   
“I am so glad that you’re okay. I thought you were going to die, like full on legit die,” she mumbled.  
“Okay, 1. I’m already dead. 2. I’m not going anywhere, not without you.” He rested his chin on her head and they stayed like that for a while. Even though he was bony, she felt the most comfortable here like this with him. She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek and she could tell that if he had had his façade on, it would be blushing.   
“Sometimes, I wander how you can stand being like this with me. Heck, I’m a skeleton. I don’t have ridiculous hair, I’m not warm, and I’m 400 years old. I’m hardly attractive, even if I always go on about it. Are you sure this kind of relationship will work for you?” he said. She could tell he had been planning on saying this.  
“Skulduggery!” This time, she kissed him on the teeth.  
“I don’t give a lobster about that, and hell yes you are so attractive. Yep, I don’t give a lobster. I love you, and it’s what’s inside that counts. Now look, here’s a lesson. You can give a damn, but you can never, ever, ever give a lobster. And I didn’t give a lobster okay? No lobsters were given,” she said.   
She looked up at him affectionately and did a double take when she realised that he was crying. Not out of sadness, but of happiness. Real, wet tears that were sparkly and glistening were rolling out of his eye sockets. He took her hands and kissed them.  
“Thank you,” he said. She hugged him tightly.  
“The skeleton detective is crying! Wait till Ghastly and Erskine hear about this!” she said teasingly.  
“Hmph, I don’t care. I’m just happy that you didn’t give a lobster,” he said causing them both to burst out laughing.   
Valkyrie was happy, she was content, and she forgot all about Nyx. Nyx turned around the corner to see Skulduggery and Valkyrie clinging to each other in some desperate embrace.   
They immediately let go but Nyx just smiled.  
“Has anyone ever told you that you are the cutest couple ever?”  
“We have to get out of here. Are you okay, you know, after yesterday,” Skulduggery asked Nyx.  
“I’ve had worse injuries. But I’m fine, real shaken up, but I’m fine,” Nyx smiled tightly.  
What kind of messed up nightmares must she have had last night, Valkyrie thought.  
“Oi!! Get out of me farm!” yelled a frustrated farmer.   
“Time to go,” Skulduggery said.   
They sprinted out of the barn and across fields of wheat and produce and finally reached a bus stop that had a map telling them where they were. They were only ten minutes from Roarhaven, so that was good.   
Valkyrie turned away from the map to tell the others the good news but was stunned to see Erskine Ravel with a gun pointed at her. Skulduggery and Nyx were preoccupied with reading the bus times to notice.   
“What the –   
And then he reached for her neck, pressed down on the pressure point, and the lights went out.


	10. 10

Valkyrie woke up and she felt a searing pain through her arms and legs. She was strapped down to a chair and her arms and legs were nailed to the chair just like Tanith was. She breathed raggedly, trying not to cry out in pain. She couldn’t move, or she would risk the unbearable pain and tearing her muscles apart. Her arms and legs were swollen up to the size of loaves of bread and she growled at the thought of Erskine Ravel, her friend nailing her arms and legs to a chair. Despite the pain, she smiled. They had to NAIL HER TO A CHAIR to contain her. She heard footsteps and put on her most fierce and angry face she could muster. It was Caelan. This made her even more determined to put on a tough façade. He actually looked concerned though, which worried her.   
“I didn’t mean this to happen to you Valkyrie,” he said sadly.  
“Bull,” she growled.  
He smiled, “I can heal you, but you must come with me, you must be my lover forever.”  
She thought about it. He could heal her, but there was a catch. She might be able to trick him, lull him into a false sense of security by pretending to actually love him. Then she would escape. There, that was her plan.  
“Okay,” she nodded her head. He came toward her and rested his hands on her thighs. She tried not to flinch.   
“It’s going to hurt okay,” he said, “But I will heal it.” She nodded her head and Caelan yanked out the nail. She threw her head back and howled, feeling an icy sensation creep up her leg. It was now healed and he had two arms and another leg to go.   
He looked her and she nodded. Keep going. He continued with the yanking and healing until she was finally, completely healed. He then sat on top of her thighs and gave her a seductive smile. Valkyrie prepared herself for the worst.  
He rested his hands on her thighs and touched her lips with his, eventually shoving his tongue in her mouth. He’s desperate, she thought as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back. She had to make him believe that she really loved him.   
And that was when things went really wrong. There was Skulduggery and Nyx, right there. Skulduggery looked so hurt, that he almost turned away. Caelan continued rubbing her thighs with his hands and she couldn’t stand it anymore. Skulduggery was shaking his head at her with disgust.   
She chose this moment to head butt Caelan and sent him flying with a wave of air.   
“Thanks! You son of a lobster!” she screamed at him.  
“Valkyrie! I thought you loved me!” he exclaimed in pain.  
“Hell no! I learned that the hard way. I pretended, and I can’t believe you didn’t see that coming!” Valkyrie said back.  
“But the way you kissed me! So intense! How could you not love me?” he said desperately and she could see Skulduggery’s discomfort.  
“No! You. Are. A. Fucking. Idiot!” she screamed, “I don’t love you!”  
Caelan flinched at her harsh words. It was true, she had never used a swear word before.  
Skulduggery stared at her, finally understanding what she was doing.   
Then, things went drastically wrong. Mevolent. Right there.   
“Ohhhhh dear,” she said but Nyx exploded.  
Tonight we're taking over, no one's getting out

This place's about to blow-oh-oh-oh!  
Blow-oh-oh-oh

Kesha’s voice screamed out of Nyx’s mouth and the pillar that Mevolent was leaning against exploded, debris flying everywhere, but he manipulated the air to throw it at Valkyrie.   
She threw it back at him and he made it disintegrate in mid - air. She called the shadows to her and sent them at Mevolent. He absorbed them and sent them raining everywhere.   
Nyx’s voice spoke to her, “The song isn’t working!”  
“Try something else! Don’t give up!” she screamed, “Maybe if I lend you some of my magic, you can make yours stronger!”  
She ran to Skulduggery and yanked him over to Nyx by the hand and we were all linked in a line.   
“It’s not going to work. You don’t understand anything about magic,” Mevolent sneered sending a bolt of lightning at her. It missed her by inches.  
“Oo! I’ve got it!” Nyx said and she sucked in a deep breath.  
My songs know what you did in the dark

So light 'em up, up, up  
Light 'em up, up, up  
Light 'em up, up, up  
I'm on fire

So light 'em up, up, up  
Light 'em up, up, up  
Light 'em up, up, up  
I'm on fire  
All three of them turned into human torches, but our bodies were not affected by the heat. She and Skulduggery had shared their elemental powers with Nyx, and therefore, they could control the fire not to burn them. The whole Sanctuary exploded and they went flying up in the air, soaring above the Sanctuary that was now in ruins. Skulduggery could fly, but he couldn’t carry both her and Nyx. They were swerving, tumbling and spinning uncontrollably in the air. They were also falling, and fast. She tried manipulating the wind to her advantage but it only made it worse Nyx had an idea though.  
I came to win, to fight, to conquer, to thrive  
I came to win, to survive, to prosper, to rise  
To fly  
To fly  
Wow, Rhianna’s voice came from Nyx’s mouth as they stopped spinning and tumbling, easing into a relaxed, slow glide. She wondered yet again, what did Nyx’s actual voice sound like?   
They landed softly and gracefully on the freshly mown grass of Gordon’s estate. How lucky to land there!  
Skulduggery helped her to her feet and stared at her intensely.   
“What were you doing?” he said so quietly that she was scared.   
“I’m sorry. It’s not what you think okay, he said he would heal me if I would be his lover so I said yes. I was lying of course, but I still should have thought of another way. Skulduggery I am truly sorry,” she said her eyes filled with shame. He stepped toward her and wrapped her up in a tight embrace.  
“It’s okay, and I’m sorry that you had to go through that,” he said. She smiled and hugged him tighter.  
“The alternative might have actually been better,” she said. He paused and let go.  
“What alternative?” he practically growled. She wondered what his reaction would be to her torture. Although he had healed her, Caelan had still left the nail hole marks on her arms and legs.   
She rolled up her pant legs and sleeves and showed Skulduggery the holes. He gasped, taking her arm gently in his, kissing the hole.   
“Oh Valkyrie, what happened?” he said, his velvet voice shaking slightly.   
So she told him about how Erskine had knocked her out and she had woken up nailed to a chair. She just got to the bit about Caelan offering to heal her in exchange for being his lover when Skulduggery blurted, “Valkyrie, you went through so much, I can’t believe you had to do that!”   
She turned to Nyx.  
“You did so well, you saved our lives and I am so grateful,” she said giving Nyx a warm hug.  
Nyx blushed, “Really?”  
“Really,” she said with a smile on her face.


	11. 11

Valkyrie walked down the stairs of Gordon’s ginormous mansion holding a mug of nice, hot coffee. She breathed in and breathed out slowly. She was finding it harder to breathe ever since they had had the giant fight with Mevolent. She tried to breathe in again, and this time, when she tried to fill up her lungs, hey would only expand half way. She sighed and took small breaths. She sat down and joined Skulduggery and Nyx at the round table in the kitchen and sipped her coffee. Skulduggery looked up from the newspaper that he was scanning.   
“What happened to your face?” he asked.  
“Jeez, not everyone looks as good as you when they get up in the morning” she said sarcastically. He got up from his chair and moved closer to her, inspecting her face.  
“No really, it’s all puffy, like an allergic reaction happened or something. Especially your lip,” he said.  
She rested her tongue on top of her lip. Caelan had bitten her lip when he had been kissing her, so that was probably why it was so swollen, not that she was going to tell Skulduggery that. But why was her face puffing up? She took out her phone and took a selfie. Holy guacamole! Her face looked like a balloon.   
“I look like an orangutan!” she exclaimed. Nyx then went pale.   
“What?” Valkyrie said to her.  
“Um, can I talk to you for a sec? Um . . . alone?” Nyx replied.  
“Sure” she said at the same time Skukduggery said, “Why”  
“Girl stuff,” Nyx replied. She followed Nyx into the study and sat down on a comfy couch.  
“What up?” she said.  
“I saw you two kiss, and I know he’s a vampire. Listen very closely. Did he or did he not bight you?”Nyx said.  
Valkyrie then figured it out. She looked at Nyx in horror.  
“Are you saying . . .”  
“So he did?”  
“On my lip,” she said stroking it with her finger.  
“Your face is swelling up, you’re about to go through the change,” Nyx said worriedly.   
Valkyrie gasped, “You can’t heal that! And we just blew up the Sanctuary so we can’t get the serum!” She ran her fingers through her hair.  
“Are you two okay? You’ve been taking an awfully long time,” said Skulduggery, peeping his head in.  
“Good luck,” Nyx whispered as she quietly left the room.   
Valkyrie wondered how she was going to tell him that there was nothing to stop her from turning into a vampire.  
Eh, she thought, if in doubt, blurt it out! So she did.  
“Caelan bit me, on my lip when I was, um, anyway – Nyx can’t heal me and we blew up the Sanctuary, so there’s no serum left and I’m gonna freakin die and come back to life as a bloodsucker in three days if we don’t find some serum!” she blurted out.  
Skulduggery didn’t say anything, he was trembling all over and suddenly, Valkyrie was scared.  
“I can’t believe he did this to you. I can’t believe I let him do this to you. Valkyrie, we are going to find some serum. I will NOT let you be turned into a monster,” he said finally stepping forward and hugging her.   
That was when she started crying. It was a rare thing to find Valkyrie crying.   
“I don’t want to be a monster!” she sobbed.   
“And you’re not going to become one,” he said stroking her face gently with his thin, gloved hands.  
She looked up at him and snaked her hand up to his collarbones where the sigils were located and tapped them. A fresh and handsome face erupted over his skull and he closed the gap between them. For the first time, they kissed properly, they held each other close and didn’t let go for quite some time.   
Finally, they went back to kitchen table to discuss what they should do.  
“The only option is to seek out a vampire, they would be the only people who would keep the serum,” Skulduggery said.   
“Not MORE vampires?!” Valkyrie said.  
“There is a vampire who lives in this area. His name is Trent,” Skulduggery said.   
She couldn’t help it, she started a giggling fit. She couldn’t stop.  
“That is so RIDICULOUS! Trent! Ha! That is such a SO – NOT – SCARY name! So boring! So ridiculous!” she said trying to breathe.  
But she couldn’t. She sucked in small breaths but it wasn’t enough. She started choking and Skulduggery ran to her and smacked her hard on the back. It stopped then, and she could breathe again.  
“What was THAT!?” Nyx said.  
“Well, believe it or not, that’s actually GOOD news,” Skulduggery said, “You’re body Valkyrie, is trying to reject and stop and the change. It’s basically slowing down the process.”  
“Okay then,” she said, “So we have to go find Trent?”  
“Yes we do,” Skulduggery said, “Nyx, is there some way that you could teleport us all to 16 Walker Street, Haggard?”  
“Woah . . . when you said ‘In the area’, I thought you meant Dublin!” Valkyrie said.  
“Sorry Skulduggery, that’s too specific, we’ll just have to travel by foot, or do you have a carriage?” Nyx said.  
Skulduggery laughed, “I forgot you weren’t from here. No, we’ll drive. We have things called cars, they are like carriages, but are powered by petrol and they don’t need horses to pull it.”  
“Wow,” Nyx sighed.   
They got into the Bentley and Nyx gasped, stroking the leather seats. They drove for 5 minutes before they reached their destination. An old brick, creepy mansion.   
Valkyrie groaned, “But this is where old man Plugger lives!”  
“Excuse me?” Skulduggery said.  
“He’s the creepy guy that no one ever sees come out of that house!”  
“He’s probably not real then.”  
“I know that, but it’s still CREEPY.”  
“Sometimes I really don’t understand you.”  
They decided not to knock, that would probably annoy him. They crept through the house searching for the vampire. They found him in a room filled with rolls and rolls of parchment. An old fashioned study.   
“What are you doing here?” he said, “I am Trent.” Valkyrie tried not to laugh.  
“We need the serum, or there will be one more like you tonight,” Skulduggery said.   
“Why should I help you?” he said.  
“Um, because you are against turning people?” Valkyrie asked hopefully.  
“You are the one who is changing. I will bring you the serum, but you must do something for me,” he said thoughtfully.   
He walked off down the corridor to fetch something, Valkyrie didn’t know what. Then, she could hear screaming. Awful screaming, coming from where Trent had wondered off too.  
“Something isn’t right,” Nyx said nervously.   
“I agree,” Skulduggery said, “Prepare yourselves.”   
Valkyrie sunk back into a fighting stance while Skulduggery pulled out his gun.   
Trent was back, and with two . . . captives. There was a little girl, about 12 with blonde hair in a two braids, clutching what must be her brother’s hand. Her brother was tall, and a lot older than her. In his twenties probably. He had blonde hair, and bright blue eyes, an attractive figure. His wrists were bleeding from chains that tightly bound his hands together. Valkyrie noticed Nyx staring at him, almost drooling.   
“Kill the girl,” Trent said, “And you may have the serum.” He held up the tiny glass vial and shook it gently in his hands, a teasing gesture.  
“Hell no,” Valkyrie muttered.  
The girl started crying now.  
“Please don’t! My name is Hazel and this is my brother Damien. We didn’t do anything wrong!” she cried.  
Skulduggery raised his gun and she whipped around to face him.  
“What the hell are you doing Skulduggery!? We can’t kill her!” she said.  
“Be brave,” he said.   
What the hell are you doing, she thought. He swung the gun around and shot Trent in the face. He didn’t fall though. She ran at him and kicked him in the stomach, it was rock hard. He didn’t even grunt.  
Nyx had run to Damien and Hazel and was trying to break their chains. Valkyrie heard her sing Whip my Hair and her golden whips slashed the chains off. Then Damien was gone. There was a chainsaw there instead.   
What the?  
Hazel picked up the chainsaw and slashed at Trent. It was too heavy though and it clunked to the ground.   
Valkyrie picked it up and just as Trent whizzed around her with his super speed she slashed the chainsaw and his body was cut into ribbons.   
The chainsaw then transformed into . . . Damien.   
She dropped him. He staggered and Nyx, with her normal hair now, caught him. Hazel started screaming now and Valkyrie knew they had to get away from the grizzly sight. She looked at Nyx and Nyx nodded.  
“Link hands everyone,” she said and the others slowly linked hands.   
She sung with Avril Lavigne’s voice, Take me Away.  
I cannot find a way to describe it  
It's there inside; all I do is hide  
I wish that it would just go away  
What would you do, you do, if you knew  
What would you do  
I'm going nowhere (on and on and)  
I'm getting nowhere (on and on and on)  
Take me away  
I'm going nowhere (on and off and off and on)  
(and off and on)

Take me away  
Break me away  
Take me away

And they were taken away, they were now on a hill of soft, green grass and Hazel threw up.  
Nyx was over with Damien, healing him and his sister while Skulduggery rested a hand on Valkyrie’s shoulder.  
“You okay?” he said. She nodded and kissed him lightly on the teeth.  
“Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed clasping her hand to her mouth.   
“What is it? Are you hurt?” Skulduggery said worriedly.  
“Where’s the serum!?” she said. Skulduggery pointed at his rib cage.  
“Here, duh,” he said and she smiled in relief.


	12. 12

Valkyrie had taken the serum and returned to her normal self, luckily, but there was still the mystery of Damien and Hazel. They all sat in a circle in the middle of the green hill, no one spoke. Valkyrie decided to break the silence.  
“Okay you two, no offence, but who the heck are you?” she asked Damien and Hazel.  
Nyx looked horrified, “Valkyrie! You can’t just ask someone who the heck they are!”  
“This is quite uncivil,” Skulduggery interrupted.  
“Oh shut up you!” said Valkyrie. Hazel rested her head in her brother’s lap and clasped her hands over her ears.  
“Now look what you’ve done, she’s upset,” said Skulduggery. Valkyrie ignored him and spoke to Damien instead.  
“So, how did you end up there, captured?”  
“Well, our parents killed Trent’s wife. They despised vampires, and sought out Trent and his wife so that they could slay them. They only managed to get his wife, Margie, before they got themselves captured. Trent was going to kill them, but they swapped their lives with ours. They made an agreement with him that if he let them go, he could have us. He mostly feeds on us, drains us a bit, but makes sure that we don’t turn into vampires,” he said sadly.   
And to think that I disliked vampires, she thought, how must he feel?  
“I’m sorry,” she said.  
“It’s okay, we’ve escaped him now,” he said.  
“What about those awesome powers of yours?” she said.   
“Well, I can turn into any object that is close to me. It’s really not THAT cool,” he said.  
“It’s amazing,” Nyx said, “You’re amazing.” And then she clasped her hands over her mouth realizing what she just said.   
“Uh, um, I mean, that power is really cool,” Nyx said.  
He smiled warmly at her and then blushed, “Thanks. That singing power of yours is so loco crazy! Amazing! But please, don’t sing Baby by Justin Beiber, we’ll all turn into babies!”  
This made Nyx laugh and Valkyrie smile. She has a crush on him, and he probably has a crush on her too.  
“So what about Hazel?” Valkyrie said.  
Hazel looked up and smiled. She lifted up her hands, palms facing down and then BOOM. Valkyrie was rising off the ground, so was every one. The loose rocks were floating in the sky and they were going higher and higher. She dropped her palms and they all fell back down to the ground.   
“Well you certainly don’t see that every day,” Skulduggery said brushing the dirt off of his suit.  
“I can’t do it under pressure,” she said, “I can only reverse gravity when I’m really concentrating.”

Once they were all properly introduced, Skulduggery filled them in on their current situation. He asked them whether they would join them, and help fight Mevolent. Valkyrie saw Nyx breathe a sigh of relief when they accepted.   
Suddenly, there was a huge explosion coming from the local library just a few blocks down. The ground shook, and smoke billowed out from the building and a ball of electric blue light formed above the old library.   
“Mevolent, no doubt,” Valkyrie said.  
“Or one of his minions,” Skulduggery said, “Let’s go.”  
They took off at a sprint but then stopped abruptly when they realised that Damien and Hazel weren’t following them.  
“Hazel can’t come, it’s too dangerous,” Damien said.   
“Everywhere is dangerous at the moment. Besides, she can help from the sidelines. She’ll be perfectly safe,” Skulduggery said so surely that Valkyrie almost believed him.  
“Okay then,” Damien mumbled.   
They kept going, Nyx at Damien’s side, Valkyrie at Skulduggery’s.  
“Do you really think it’s safe? Taking a 10 year old with us?” she whispered to Skulduggery.  
“There’s no need to whisper Valkyrie, just lower your voice. Of course it isn’t safe, her coming with us. But neither is leaving her there. She could be useful,” he said in a lowered voice.   
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she said.  
“Of course I don’t. If I did, we’d never win anything. Improvisation is so much better than a plan sometimes. It works more fluently, don’t you think?” he said.  
“You’re the boss,” she sighed.  
“Yes, yes I am,” he said grinning.   
“I’m just stretching that ego further aren’t I?”  
“Mm hm, it used to be as big as Ireland. Now, it’s stretched over America.”  
She smiled, “Calling you a boss, gave you the ego the size of Ireland and America?”  
“Coming from you it did. Here we are,” he said.   
They had reached the partially blown up library. It was covered in ash, and all this blue jelly. They crept in quietly and Valkyrie brushed her hands along the wall. Her fingers stopped as she felt a large bump in the wall. It was squishy. She pressed her finger into it and the outline of a door appeared.   
“How stereotypical can you get?” Damien said, “Secret room?”  
There was no door handle on the door and no way of opening it.   
“Kick it down,” Skulduggery suggested.   
Valkyrie lifted up her leg and booted the door as hard as she could. The impact didn’t even make a noise.   
“You try then,” she huffed at Skulduggery.   
He took off his hat and passed it to Valkyrie, who put it on her head.  
“You aren’t going to get this back you know,” she grinned evilly.   
He booted the wall and got the same result as Valkyrie. She poked her tongue out at him and he shrugged.   
“This isn’t a normal door,” he muttered.   
“Look!” Hazel cried, pointing at one of the blue jelly blobs. The jelly blob was eating away at the floor like acid.   
“Can’t Damien turn into one of them and burn the door down?” she said.   
Skulduggery knelt down to Hazel’s height, “You, are very clever.”  
Hazel smiled and suddenly there was no Damien. A blue jelly ball bounced off the ground and flew at the door, burning a hole right through it. Damien returned and they congratulated him and proceeded through the door, Valkyrie first.  
When she stepped through the door, she stepped on nothing and fell downwards toward the inky blackness. The others followed her, every one screaming except Skulduggery.   
She used the air to cushion the fall and levitated Damien and Hazel down. Skulduggery landed gracefully and Nyx sung her way down. Skulduggery snatched his hat off Valkyrie’s head.  
They were in a dimly lit room with a huge, bubbling cauldron in the middle.   
“What the heck is that?” Damien said.   
“I don’t know, but I don’t think it is good,” Nyx said shaking her head.   
Hazel ran up to the cauldron and peeked inside it.  
“Hey! It’s full of that weird blue stuff!” she exclaimed.   
Skulduggery took a look himself, “Mevolent must be using this for something. But what?”  
Valkyrie didn’t know, Mevolent had the Magic Mirror, he just needed another sorcerer with his amount of power, like Darquesse to be able to use it to kill all the mortals. Why did he need the blue stuff?  
She noticed another squishy lump in the wall and pushed it. This time, a door appeared and opened itself. She walked in slowly turning around to tell Skulduggery what she had found.  
She screamed as a hand pulled her back. She tripped over, just as the door snapped shut. She whipped around to see what had pulled her back and almost fainted. It was a pale creature, human, but not entirely. It lashed out at her and bit her arm. She screamed in pain and despair. There were many of them in this new room.   
They were breathing in and out incredibly fast, like bizarre zombies preparing to feast on human flesh. They all snapped their heads at her and jumped at the same time. She became buried in a pile of zombies. They pressed down on her, and she found it more difficult to breathe. They were pulling at her arms and legs, sinking their sharpened teeth into her flesh. She was sticky all over and she could not push them off her. She screamed as a zombie tore out her hamstring. The door was locked, Skulduggery didn’t know where she was, and she was trapped with a room full of Gollum like zombie creatures.


	13. 13

Skulduggery heard a muffled scream. He turned around to check that everyone was okay, and tensed when he realised that Valkyrie was not here with them. Valkyrie was screaming, it didn’t sound like she was fighting back either. Whoever had her must have been too strong for her, which was really strange considering that it was Valkyrie. She was the definition of strong in his eyes.   
“Check the walls for any hidden doors,” he said to the others, “There must be another one that Valkyrie went through.”  
He pressed his hands against the wall, and tried feeling for any strange bumps that could trigger a hidden door to open. He could still hear her screaming so he doubled his pace.  
“Door! Door! I found a door! LOOK!” cried Hazel.   
The group rushed to where she was standing, there was a blue lump of jelly stuck to the wall. Skulduggery stretched out a gloved hand and prodded the jelly and the feint outline of a door appeared. He kicked at the door but it didn’t budge.  
“Oh come on!” he growled. Nyx placed a hand on his shoulder.  
“It’s okay, I’ll do it.” And with that she started up her Miley Cyrus song and turned into a wrecking ball that destroyed the door, smashing it to smithereens.  
Valkyrie’s screaming became twice as loud and he rushed in through the door to help her but stopped suddenly.  
“What the fridging heck is that!?” Damien said.   
Valkyrie was on the ground, covered in blue jelly, and each time she screamed, the jelly would pulse, sending electrical looking currents straight into her body.  
Skulduggery was about to reach out and pull the jelly off her when Nyx interrupted.  
“Don’t! Look at what the stuff is doing to Valkyrie! Who knows what’ll happen if you touch it!?”  
He nodded, and summoned a flame to his hands and brought it closer to her body. Her body lit up in flames and the strange jelly stopped pulsing and started melting. Skulduggery summoned a huge blob of water and doused the flames on Valkyrie’s body.  
She slowly began to sit up.  
“Valkyrie?” he said.

Valkyrie’s POV  
The zombie Gollum creatures continued coming at her, tearing at her hair and clawing at her face. She screamed and screamed and screamed, until everything popped. The zombies popped and disappeared and the only thing she could see now was a blurry skeleton.  
“Valkyrie?” Skulduggery said, “Are you okay? You’re shivering and hyperventilating! What happened?”  
She hadn’t even noticed her hyperventilating and now she couldn’t stop.  
“Sk-sk-skulduggery, th-th-there were s-s-so many of th-th-them. I’m probably dying right now. They snapped my bones, pulled out my arteries a-a-and right n-n-n-now I r-r-r-really sh-sh-sh-shouldn’t be alive!” she managed shivering.  
“Valkyrie, you don’t have any injuries. Look at yourself, you’re perfectly safe and healthy. What was it exactly that you saw?” he said softly.   
She looked at her arms and legs, felt her face, it was true – she had sustained no injuries.   
“They were these zombie like creatures that looked kind of like Gollum, but had the speed and agility of a vampire, and they all just ran at me and started eating me and –  
Skulduggery reached out and hugged her and immediately, her shivers ceased.   
“Fear! That is what really makes the heart pound, doesn’t it? Fear shuts you down Valkyrie.”  
Everyone turned around at the sound of his voice.  
“Who the hell is that?” asked Damien. Nyx, Valkyrie and Skulduggery looked at each other, they knew whose voice it was, it was pretty hard to forget.  
“Who the hell am I?” Melovent said, “I am your worst nightmare, well, that is, if you upset me.”  
“Why are you here,” Skulduggery said.  
“Well I thought that was obvious. I am here for Darquesse, I need to release her. The Magic Mirror is ready to use, and I need Valkyrie here, or Darquesse to help me. With our combined power, by tomorrow morning, the world population will be halved, there will be only sorcerers left. That explosion you heard before? Well, I knew you’d just have to check it out. It was a trap. And as for the jelly, well, it’s like a fear simulation. What Valkyrie experienced wasn’t real, but most people go insane after being attacked by the jelly, so well done I guess. Now come along Valkyrie, we’re on a tight schedule,” Mevolent sneered.  
“She’s not going anywhere,” Skulduggery said.  
“We’ll see about that,” Mevolent said, “Vengeous, take the skeleton, Caelan and Stephanie take Nyx and the brother and sister. I’ll get Darquesse.”  
Vengeous, Caelan and Stephanie appeared then, sneering. They struck at the same time, Skulduggery barely holding off Vengeous. The room was filled with sounds of battle, metal clashing on metal, auto tuned singing, and screaming from Hazel. Stephanie was taking on both Nyx and Damien, but Caelan was left alone to attack Hazel. Hazel had quite a unique power, reversing gravity, but she was young, she could only use her skills when there were no distractions and Caelan was definitely a big distraction.  
“Caelan! Why would you attack someone so innocent?! I thought you loved me! If you did, you’d back off, if you did, you’d try and rescue me!” she screamed.  
He whipped his head around and snarled. He was a full vampire now, there was no reasoning with the animal that had taken over. But, that wasn’t the point. She had given Hazel enough time to concentrate on her power, and harness the energy inside her.   
When Caelan turned his attention back to her, he was lifted up off of the ground and smashed through the ceiling. She held him dangling up there, gnashing and drooling.   
“Nice job sweetie!” Valkyrie called out to Hazel, who smiled back.   
Stephanie was on the floor now, panting for breath, bruises covering her body. Nyx and Damien now helped Hazel contain Caelan.   
Skulduggery was still battling it out with Vengeous, who was definitely a worthy opponent of the skeleton detective. He was losing though, he needed time to regain his strength. Valkyrie looked at Stephanie, who was on the ground moaning.   
Valkyrie slowly picked her up using the air and briefly smiled at the reflection.   
“No no no no no –  
“Too late,” Valkyrie smiled and threw her with all her might at Vengeous who was knocked off his feet. They both went flying through the wall.  
Skulduggery turned to her, “Thanks!”  
“No probs!” she yelled back.  
Suddenly, she was on the ground, a tendril of darkness wrapped around her leg. She looked up to see Mevolent looming over her.  
“Hello poppet,” he grinned.


	14. 14

Valkyrie POV  
“Hello poppet,” Mevolent sneered at her.   
“Hi,” Valkyrie stuttered.   
Mevolent pressed another jelly thing on the wall and dragged her into a huge chamber, sealing the door he had just opened. Mevolent bent down and picked her up by the collar of her jacket and threw her at the wall. Of course, her jacket protected her so it only hurt a little. She got back on her feet and threw a ball of fire at him which he simply waved away.   
“Is that all you got?” he taunted. He raised his hands up in the air and summoned a huge torrent of water. As the water grew and grew, the water level came closer to the roof. It was so huge now that Mevolent’s head was underneath. Bubbles escaped his mouth and the huge wall of water slammed into her with the force of a tsunami. She was pushed up against the wall and managed to hold her breath. Her chest ached, craving oxygen. Hold on Valkyrie, hold on, she thought. An idea clicked in her head and she focused her remaining energy into creating a small air bubble around her mouth. She sucked in the air and started choking, relieved that she could breathe again.   
She wasn’t relieved for long though. In her frantic rush to create the air bubble, Valkyrie had forgotten all about Mevolent as he snuck up behind her. She gasped as he popped the air bubble she had created for herself. She choked on the water, feeling it rushing into her lungs.   
And then the water was gone, and Mevolent was standing in front of her while she choked on the water in her lungs. He simply walked toward her, pulled her jacket off and kneed her harder than humanly possible in the chest. She doubled over in pain as she felt her ribs splinter. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish, not making a sound.   
Let me out.  
No, Valkyrie thought weakly, I can’t let you win.  
Another knee was driven into her chest and Valkyrie gasped as one of her ribs pierced her lungs. C’mon Valkyrie, you’re stronger than this, she thought to herself.   
Another knee, and she started seeing black dots in her vision. One of her ribs was poking out of her chest.  
You need to let me out, it’s the only way to win. Do you want Skulduggery to die? Because he will when he goes up against Mevolent.  
Promise you’ll bring me back after he’s defeated?  
No promises sweetheart.  
Mevolent picked her up and threw her at the wall. Darquesse lifted her head and smiled. 

Nyx POV  
Caelan was down, as was Stephanie. The only enemy left now was Mevolent and Vengeous. Where was Mevolent anyway? Enough Nyx! Seriously, can’t you just concentrate helping Skulduggery? Nyx nodded her head took Damien’s hand and ran to help Skulduggery, leaving Hazel to guard Calean and Stephanie.  
Skulduggery threw Vengeous at the wall and narrowly missed the tendril of darkness that lashed out at him from the strange looking armor he was wearing. Wait, wasn’t that Vile’s armor? NYX! Focus! Right, she thought, focus, and get your head in the game.   
She pointed at him and sung,   
What does the fox say?  
Ding ding ding ding dinga dinga ding  
Ding ding ding ding dinga dinga ding  
Ding ding ding ding dinga dinga ding  
What the fox say?  
Wha pa pa pa pa pa pow  
Wha pa pa pa pa pa pow  
Wha pa pa pa pa pa pow  
What the fox say ?  
Vengeous repeated the strange noises that foxes supposedly made and broke out into the crazy fox dance.   
Skulduggery tilted his head at her and she shrugged. That song obviously wasn’t working because Vengeous kept coming at him. She decided to try something new.  
I am a fighter,eh eh, it's in my DNA  
Step by step, and brick by brick, nobody stopping me  
Quit trying to shoot me down, 'cause I'm invincible  
I think you made a mistake, I am a warrior

I stand like a soldier, yeah  
Strike like a tiger  
I stand like a soldier, yeah  
Punch like a champion

I'm gonna dance, dance, dance to the beat of my drum  
Gonna feel my blood running wild and young  
Gonna dance, dance, dance to the beat of my drum  
Like a warrior

Warrior  
Warrior  
Warrior  
Warrior

She felt strong, powerful and brimming with confidence and threw a punch at Vengeous, sending him smashing through the wall. He didn’t get up. This wall just so happened to be the wall that was separating them from Valkyrie and Mevolent. Only, Valkyrie wasn’t really herself.   
Darquesse POV  
Mevolent was a good fighter, she had to admit and also had good plans. He walked over to her and stretched out his hand. She took it and rose to her feet, healing the splintered ribs that protruded from her chest and pierced her lungs.   
“The Mirror is in position my lady, come,” Mevolent beckoned. She raised an eyebrow, my lady? She summoned a fistful of shadows and sent them flying at Mevolent. She smiled at his whimper of pain.  
“If you and I are to get along,” she said, “You must do what I say and you must never call me my lady again, it makes you sound weak.”  
He scowled, “As you wish.”  
“Good. The Mirror is on the roof is it not?” She asked then giggled, “Wanna fly up with me?”  
He grinned as she held onto him, preparing to take off. The roof above them crumbled and they shot upward through the hold in the roof, all the way into the clear night sky. She circled around the building once before touching down beside the mirror.   
It looked like a huge magnifying glass and was pointed up at the sky. At the bottom was a box, a generator sort of thing. She would have to channel all her power into it, along with Mevolent’s. She looked across at him. He looked a little green actually, she giggled.   
Mevolent POV  
The sound of her laughter made his non -existent heart flutter. After this, she would rule by his side, his queen, for eternity.  
Darquesse POV  
“Mevolent? Yoohoo!” she waved her hand in his face, “We have a world to destroy! Isn’t this exciting?”  
He snapped out of it and took her hand placing it on the generator.  
They both looked at each other.  
“On the count of three,” Mevolent said, “1.”  
“2.”  
“3,” they said together. A huge beam of bright, white light (woah! Look at that rhyming right there!) shot into the sky. Darquesse grinned, the destruction of the world was so beautiful.   
The angle changed suddenly, and a split second too late she realised what was happening. She saw a skeletal face, and then the bright beam reflected right at her and Mevolent and then – 

Skulduggey POV  
“NO!” he screamed as he realised the consequence of his actions. The Mirror stood still now, facing the exact positions of where Darquesse and Mevolent were standing a moment before. They were now reduced to a pile of bones. His Valkyrie, gone. The light in his world, his saviour, his best friend, his partner, his . . . love, gone.  
He hung his head and gasped as a silver liquid poured out of his eye sockets. Magical tears. It had only happened to him once before, when he had found out what China had did. Of course, he had been alone in his house then. This time he was surrounded by people. Damien was holding Nyx as she turned her head away from the scene in front of her and Hazel hid behind Damien.   
He slowly rose and made a promise to himself, he would protect others, no matter what. Nyx, Damien, Hazel, and especially, Valkyrie’s family. He owed that to her.


	15. Chapter 15 - Back from the dead?

Skulduggery sat in his house on his old and worn out sofa, Valkyrie’s sofa. He shivered. It had been exactly a year since it had happened and Skulduggery hadn’t spoken a word to anybody apart from retelling the story of her death. He hadn’t told the real story though, he couldn’t do that to Valkyrie. He had promised he would keep Darquesse a secret. The story he told was fairly vague, Darquesse had killed Valkyrie in front of him and he had then killed Darquesse in his rage. Surprisingly, everyone had believed him, ignoring the holes in his story, moving on without him.   
Nyx and Damien had become excellent detectives at the Sanctuary working as partners and with Hazel, they had become a little family living a few blocks away from the Sanctuary itself which had moved from Roarhaven to an underground facility directly beneath Skulduggery’s house.  
Typical, all he wanted was to be alone, not constantly reminded of her wherever he went, not that he was going anywhere though. Of course, Skulduggery had paid attention to everything that was going on. He still sent Christmas cards and birthday cards, but never delivered them to the person directly.  
His phone, which he hadn’t touched since he no longer needed it buzzed. Skulduggery tilted his head and slowly picked up the buzzing phone. The caller ID read ‘Ghastly’. Skulduggery’s hand hovered above the answer button, but then quickly tapped the decline button.   
Only two minutes after the first buzz came a second and for the first time in a year, Skulduggery Pleasant made a sound. He groaned and tapped the button again. As soon as he had put the phone down, it buzzed for a third time. Skulduggery fumed and threw the device at the wall, burying his head in his hands.  
“Now that is no way to treat your phone Skulduggery.”  
He whipped around, gun already in his hands but was surprised at the intruder, it was Ghastly.   
“How the hell did you get in?” Skulduggery said, surprised he could still speak. Ghastly’s expression softened slightly, but then became stern.  
“You can’t just spend the rest of your life cooped up in here depressed,” he said, “Look how much you've let your guard down! I managed to sneak into the skeleton detective’s house without him even knowing for Pete’s sake! You need to move on, for her at least. Do you really think Valkyrie would want this? She’d kill you if she ever saw you like this, you’d be dead for a second time.”  
Although he clearly hadn't gotten over her death yet, Skulduggery smiled at the mention of Valkyrie. Ghastly was right though, she really wouldn't want this, but what was he going to do now? She would have wanted him to continue being a detective, he thought, not cooped up in his house oblivious even to intruders.   
“Okay Ghastly, I’ll get out of the house, maybe even try and get back to detecting, but you what exactly is it that you want?” Skulduggery said.   
Ghastly’s mouth twitched, a small smile appearing, but it disappeared and quickly turned solemn again.   
“In memory of Valkyrie, we are having a night dedicated to her tomorrow. She was an amazing detective and she deserves to be honoured. It’s also a chance for you to say goodbye to her properly, because I know you still haven’t done that. The event will be in her mansion, were we had the Requiem Ball and I want you to be there and maybe say a few words?” Ghastly said.  
It was perfect, Valkyrie wouldn't have wanted to be remembered by the bad things she experienced and her death, but celebrated and talked about for all the good times she had in her life and as the marvelous detective she was.   
“Okay,” he said softly, “I’m in.”  
Ghastly smiled and stretched out his arms and Skulduggery laughed softly as they embraced.

!Valkyrie POV!  
Slowly, Valkyrie opened her eyes, but they didn’t open. She tried to frown but found that she couldn’t.  
What the heck………  
She was lying down on a hard surface, she knew that. She lifted her arm up, in front of her face and screamed, she didn’t need eyes to see the white skeletal arm in front of her. She touched her face, which was smooth, bony, and …. a skull. She felt the empty space where her eyes should have been and gasped. She was a skeleton.   
She held her breath and lifted her arm above of her but it was blocked from moving any further by yet another hard surface above her. She was in a tiny space in the dark and she was no longer human. She didn’t like that. She tried not to panic and freak out and instead tried to remember how she got herself into this predicament. Not to mention why it appeared that she was no longer a girl, but a pearly white skeleton like Skulduggery.   
Skulduggery! Where was he? Was he okay? What happened to him?  
Suddenly, memories of her death came flashing back. Her death? Yes, she was Darquesse, and she was about to set the magic mirror in motion. Valkyrie herself was simply a voice in the back of Darquesse’s mind, screaming for her to stop.   
Then there was Skulduggery, and Valkyrie knew what he had to do. Valkyrie had screamed at him to do it, kill her, whist trying desperately to pull apart from Darquesse. She didn’t want to die, although it was inevitable with Darquesse. When the blinding light pierced Darquesse’s heart, she had felt the magic inside her break. Valkyrie latched on to it, holding on desperately, until her body had finally crumpled.   
She had suddenly felt it, freedom, Darquesse was no longer attached to her, and she was no more. But how could Valkyrie still be capable of feeling anything? She was supposed to be dead though, along with Darquesse.   
She wasn’t though. She was in a coffin underground, very much alive in her skeletal form. Valkyrie supposed the magic that she had held onto had saved her life. It couldn’t have saved her skin though, or her flesh. But at least she was alive.   
How the heck was she going to get out of here?  
She breathed out a huff of air in annoyance. It wasn’t as if anyone would dig her out. She was dead.   
But, she thought, do I still have magic? She clicked her thin skeletal fingers, trying to conjure a flame. A single spark appeared but quickly disappeared. She rolled her non-existent eyes and tried again. This time, a small flame erupted from her hand.   
YES!!   
But, she was in a coffin, even if she was able to somehow burn the coffin apart, how the hell would she manage to reach the surface? She was surrounded in earth.   
Earth.  
Earth.  
EARTH.  
The solution was simple, if she could somehow manipulate the earth, she could get herself out of it.   
Hmmm, the problem was, how the heck do you manipulate the freaking ground? She thought back to her lessons with Skulduggery and how water, fire and air was manipulated. In order to manipulate water, Valkyrie had to feel the water molecules and shape them, commanding them to take the form of what she moulded. With air, she had to feel the air currents, pushing and pulling, sending the currents in a direction of her choice.   
She needed to feel the connection with the ground.   
She couldn’t really feel anything, she wasn’t even cold.   
Well of course not, you’re a skeleton now!   
She tried to imagine Skulduggery being with her, what he would say.   
Probably something silly and sarcastic, she thought.   
No, he would probably tell her to imagine the earth’s layers, feel the different formations of rock underneath her, or on top of her as it was now.   
What?????? Where were these thoughts even coming from? She didn’t know anything about rocks! OR the earth, or about formations.  
She decided to listen to these thoughts though, letting them guide her.   
Pull down. Let the rock sink down, the layers dissolving, bending at your will.   
She felt and imagined the connections in the ground and imagined the rock sinking at first, and then bending away from the coffin, allowing the sun’s rays to touch the coffin.  
She heard a rumbling sound and smiled in triumph.   
How she knew that the sun’s rays were touching it, she didn’t know, but somehow, she had felt the rock move above her.   
Now, all she had to do was lift herself out of the ground. Supposing that she should use air magic, she raised her palms and pushed.   
Nothing happened.   
She couldn’t even feel the air currents. She needed to use a different form of magic if she wanted to get herself out of the ground.   
If you can make the ground sink, you can raise it can’t you?  
Valkyrie thought about how she had let the earth sink and split apart and this time imagined opposite forces acting upon it. She pressed her hands against the coffin, spread out facing down and pushed.   
Her whole body was flung back as the coffin erupted out of the ground, smashing the wooden box to pieces as it rolled and tumbled on the ground when it fell from the air.  
Valkyrie immediately leapt out of the coffin, coughing and spluttering, even though she had no lungs.   
She took in her surroundings and found that she was in a cemetery, specifically the one around the corner from Skulduggery’s house.   
She looked down at herself and gasped at her appearance. She was a skeleton, a fully naked walking talking skeleton, just like Skulduggery.  
Skulduggery.  
What would he do if he saw her like this? Back from the dead too. As a skeleton. Alive.  
She thought about what she would do and decided that it was probably best if she didn’t appear to Skulduggery like this right now. She needed to fix her appearance first. She needed a façade, and there was only one person she could go to for that.   
China Sorrows.


	16. Skulduggery has a double!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT: The song featured in this chapter ‘Wings’ is by Cimorelli. I didn’t write it and neither did Valkyrie, although I changed the lyrics a bit. Cimorelli are AWESOME!  
> Rightio folks, this is a LONG chapter (My longest ever!) 4000 words! And all of them are for you… yes, this is my gift to you. ENJOY! :)

Valkyrie was stuck. Sure she was out of the grave, but how the heck was she supposed to visit China when she was a skeleton? It’s not like she could just walk down the street and catch a bus there, the mortals would freak out at the sight of a walking talking skeleton. She couldn’t call Skulduggery or China either, she wasn’t buried with her phone. In fact, she was currently hiding in a public bathroom in the park next to the cemetery. She was lucky that there were no mortals to see her duck into the loo, but she was betting she would see plenty on her way to China.  
China. How would Skulduggery feel knowing that she had gone to China first, not him? She pushed that thought aside shaking her skull from side to side. How on earth was she going to do this?! She didn’t want to wait until dark either, that would be way too long a wait.   
She needed to get to China’s new apartment without being identified as a skeleton, she needed a disguise. But where was she going to get clothes from anyway?   
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps and awful whistling. She tried to smile but found that she couldn’t, so tilted her skull instead. She stepped out of the cubicle and snapped her palm out at the unsuspecting man, who was thrown at a wall and sunk to the ground.  
She rolled her eyes at the fat man, although she didn’t have any, dragging him back to her cubicle. Why did he have to be so fat?! There was no way these clothes would fit her!   
She stripped them off of him anyway, putting them on herself. Buttoning up the shirt, she ripped some of the bottom off for a scarf pulled her trousers up and put his sunglasses on.  
Right, she thought, now I’m ready.  
She scooted out of the bathroom catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Damn, she thought, I look like the friggin grim reaper! She tried to walk in a casual manner to the bus stop, but she was freaking out. The disguise wasn’t that good, what if the bus driver freaked out and called the cops on her?  
Calm down Valkyrie, she tried to soothe herself, if you can get yourself out of a grave, you can do anything.  
She stepped onto the bus and nodded at the driver, trying to ignore the stare she was receiving in return. She took her seat and was glad when she could finally get off the stuffy bus. 

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

She looked up at the apartment building feeling nervous. China wouldn’t know who she was, probably wouldn’t even want to help her. But then again, she was in debt to Skulduggery so maybe she would help her.  
She ascended the stairs to China’s unit slowly, not wanting to trip over her own baggy pants and knocked on the door. She waited for about thirty seconds until finally the door opened to reveal one of her bodyguards.   
His eyes widened at her somewhat creepy appearance.  
“I’m here to see China Sorrows, my name is Valkyrie Cain,” she stated confidently. His eyes widened even more.  
“You’re dead, there’s a memorial party tonight to celebrate your life. You can’t be Valkyrie Cain!” the man said.  
She sighed and took off her sunglasses to reveal the pearly white bone underneath, “Trust me. I need to see China immediately.”  
The man nodded at this and opened the door wider, beckoning her inside.   
She heard a female voice speak, “Derald! What on earth are you doing? Who is it?”  
The man looked at Valkyrie nervously as she spoke, “China, it’s me, its Valkyrie Cain.”  
A beautiful woman emerged from what looked like the bathroom wearing her pink fluffy towel around her.  
China.  
“What?” she whispered, genuinely shocked as she tapped a symbol, causing her clothes to appear on her.  
Valkyrie took off the scarf too and repeated herself, “It’s Valkyrie Cain.”  
“But… how? I watched them bury you!” she said.  
“You watched them bury me?” she said.  
“Yes! And you’re dead?” she asked.  
“Yes,” Valkyrie said.  
“And you’re a skeleton now?”  
“No China I’m a puppy,” she said sarcastically.  
“Okay,” China said calmly, “What happened?”  
So Valkyrie repeated her story, from the fight between Skulduggery and Darquesse, the grave and escaping it.  
“I need a façade China,” Valkyrie stated, “If I want to see Skulduggery tonight at this memorial thing, I need to look like myself so I don’t completely freak him out.”  
China nodded, “I think I can give you back your original face seeing as you died so recently.”  
Valkyrie cringed at the word ‘died’.  
“Okay,” she said, “How long will it take?”  
China smiled, “For it to be perfect, a while. Don’t worry, you’ll be in good time to go to your memorial service.”  
Again, Valkyrie cringed. When would she get used to the fact that she was dead?  
“Okay,” China smiled, “Let’s begin.”  
She pulled out a chair for Valkyrie to sit in and grabbed what looked like a pen and some cream.   
“For those who have never experienced my symbols before, they can actually be quite painful and seeing as you’re a skeleton, I’m betting that you’re probably still adjusting as well,” China said as Valkyrie nodded.  
“Is that what the cream is for?” she asked.  
China nodded and squirted the ointment onto Valkyrie’s collar bone, massaging it softly.   
“You won’t feel any pain while I do this,” China said, pulling the pen out.  
“What is that?” Valkyrie asked.  
“Shh,” China said, “This is a work of art, I can’t have distractions.”  
Valkyrie huffed and mumbled, “Fine.”  
China laughed, “At least dying hasn’t changed you. You’re still the same old Valkyrie.”  
“And you’re the same old China?” Valkyrie asked, sensing China stiffen at her words.   
“I hope I have changed,” she said softly, “Sometimes, and I can’t believe that I’m even admitting this to you, sometimes I feel lonely. No one wants to see a murderer, a trickster and a cheat.”  
Valkyrie was silent before answering, “China, before I found out about it, you did change. I actually wanted to see you because you were my friend. And then I found out that you were the one who lead Skulduggery’s family into Serpine’s trap.”  
China lifted her head up and snapped at her rather angrily, “Look Valkyrie, you weren’t even alive when the war happened! How would you know what it is like? I was a different person Valkyrie, just like Skulduggery was. He killed people in his rage even before he became Lord Vile. I changed after that war. I’m not the same person. It has taken me so long to be able to look at myself and not feel utter hatred. You may not be able to tell, but I am a human, and I do have feelings. Do you think I’m proud of what I’ve done? No. I most certainly am not, so why don’t you, and everyone else take a lesson from Elsa and LET IT GO.”  
Valkyrie was shocked at the sudden outburst, but was also amazed at the truth behind her words. How could she judge? She used to be a world killer, she wasn’t exactly a saint and neither was Skulduggery.   
She tilted her head at China and inwardly smiled, “So, you like the movie ‘Frozen’?”  
China relaxed and smiled at her, “Yes, I think I can kind of relate to Elsa in a way. Everyone thought that she was an evil sorceress but really, she was just lonely and lacking love.”  
“I totally have control of my powers though,” she added.  
China then clapped her hands together.  
“Now dear, I think I should really get to work on this façade.”

 

Skulduggery’s POV

Skulduggery stood in front of the mirror, admiring himself. He was wearing his favourite suit today, it was the simple black and white, but today his hat had a ribbon of gold around it. He sighed and through the hat across the room. When would the pain stop? The answer should be ‘in time’ but really, Skulduggery doubted that he would ever get over the loss of Valkyrie. He wasn’t ready for this, wasn’t ready to dress up and listen to people talk about her in the past tense. He had already gone through that with his wife, and now he was forced to go through it with Valkyrie.  
He heard the soft ping of his phone and slowly picked it up. A text from Ghastly: Where are you?  
Skulduggery’s jaw tensed as he texted back: On my way.   
As soon as he sent it, he got in the Bentley trying to ignore the stinging memories of the person who should have been sitting beside him and drove to Gordon’s mansion.

Valkyrie’s POV  
“Done,” China said, gently tapping the symbols as Valkyrie’s face suddenly appeared.  
She smiled at her appearance, genuinely happy to have her face back. She couldn’t wait to see Skulduggery, although he might freak out. After all, she was supposed to be dead. Did he miss her? She thought about this and shook her head, of course he would.  
“Thanks China, are you coming to this memorial thing?” she asked.   
“Of course,” China said, “But I’m afraid you are going to need some clothes.”  
Oh, that’s right, her clothes. The symbols weren’t full body, so she was going to need to cover her legs and arms completely.  
“I want a suit,” she said.  
“A suit? I suppose that’s really the only option,” China said thoughtfully, “Also, I’d wait to reveal yourself, otherwise you’ll freak everyone out.”  
“What, am I supposed to go as a skeleton then?” Valkyrie asked.  
“You’re going to have to,” China said as Valkyrie tapped the symbol again to reveal the skull underneath.  
“Okay,” she said, “I’m ready to go.”

 

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

China and a very nervous Valkyrie stepped out of the car and knocked on the door to Gordon’s mansion which was opened by Ghastly.  
Ghastly stared at Valkyrie who was wearing the exact same outfit Skulduggery was probably wearing.  
“But Skulduggery’s inside-  
“Hush now, don’t worry about it. This is …. um Dan,” China said. Uh, nice lying China.  
“Um Dan?” Ghastly repeated.  
“Yes, Um Dan,” China said, “May we come in?”  
“Uh yeah, sure, I guess.”  
Valkyrie breathed a sigh of relief as they passed a suspicious Ghastly and proceeded into one of the ballrooms where the ceremony was going to take place. She saw Skulduggery sitting at the far back of the room and resisted the urge to run over to him and hug him as hard as she could.  
She also saw Nyx, Damien and little Hazel. They all looked like a happy family. She couldn’t wait to be able to see them and talk to them as Valkyrie. 

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Skulduggery’s POV

“Ahem, excuse me everyone, will you all take your seats,” Ghastly said, “Tonight we are here to celebrate the life of one of our best friends, detectives, and sorcerers.”  
“Valkyrie Cain was special, right from the start when she was introduced to the world of magic. I told her to quit, live her life and to forget all about magic. Of course, she didn’t. She was stubborn, she never gave up, and that was something I admired about her. She always tried her hardest at everything, and she was always a good friend. She didn’t deserve to die, and we all know that, so tonight, let us remember our young sorceress as the kind fiery spirited girl she was.”  
Everyone clapped as the next speaker got up. Skulduggery focused on his breathing, in and out, in and out. His eyes scanned the audience and he inwardly scowled when he saw China. But who was that sitting next to her? He was thin, wore a hat, a suit… he was dressed exactly like Skulduggery!   
Who did his guy think he was? Mocking him? His jaw tightened when suddenly, the man spun around in his seat and made eye contact with him. Eye contact, more like eye socket contact, the man was an exact replica of him! Skulduggery was furious now, who the hell was this guy?

There was noise suddenly, and Skulduggery realised there was a break. Ghastly tapped him on the shoulder and mumbled, “Are you okay?”  
“I don’t know,” he sighed and pointed at the other skeleton, “But I will be better when I found out who the hell my clone is.”  
Ghastly looked uneasy as he said, “I don’t know who he is, China brought him.”  
China, his jaw tightened, she was probably up to something fishy.  
The other skeleton man stood by a table full of food looking at it almost longingly.  
Skulduggery had had enough. He needed to find out who this guy was and why he was at Valkyrie’s memorial service.  
They made eye contact again, but this time Skulduggery didn’t look away. He continued walking towards the man who already started walking away and up the stairs toward Gordon’s library.  
Skulduggery reached the stairs and took them two at a time. He reached the top and sprinted at the man, pouncing on him.   
“Gotcha now,” he whispered in the man’s ear.

Valkyrie’s POV  
“Gotcha now,” Skulduggery whispered in her ear, making her shiver. What was she going to do now? Reveal herself as Valkyrie? But how would Skulduggery react to that? Would he even believe that she was Valkyrie?  
Her thoughts were interrupted when her body was flipped around to face Skulduggery, and although he wasn’t wearing a façade, Valkyrie could tell that he was furious.  
“Who the hell are you?” he finally spoke. Should she answer?  
He shook her roughly, “Hey, I’m talking to you! Why are you here? And why did you come up to Gordon’s study?”  
Oh jeez, of all the random rooms you could have picked, why Gordon’s?   
Suddenly, she felt something cold against her skull and without having to turn her head, she knew that Skulduggery was pointing a gun at her.  
“Look here imposter, if you do not tell me right now what your purpose is and who you are, I swear to you I’m going to shoot you,” he said in a dangerous tone, causing her to whimper ever so slightly.  
He pulled the gun back, shocked.  
“What?” he half whispered. Well, it was now or never.  
“Sk-sk-Skulduggery?” she whispered, “It’s me, Valkyrie.”  
The other skeleton froze completely and stood silently for a while before finally answering, “No you’re not, you can’t be.”  
Then in a softer tone continued, “I killed you.”  
All of a sudden she felt his thin frame start to shake, softly at first, but then rather violently. He was crying.   
Oh gosh, she had hoped that their reunion would be a bit better than this.  
She spoke again, “You killed Darquesse Skulduggery, but I was still there. You know that you can’t kill magic right? Well, I latched onto my magic held within Darquesse and as she died, all of her and my magic came rushing to me. The next thing I know, I wake up in a coffin underground.”  
She had started crying now as he looked up at her.   
“How do I know that you’re not lying?” he said.  
“Well silly billy,” she said smiling a little, “I have Valkyrie’s voice for starters, the grave that I escaped is all dug up, and I’m pretty sure that we were the only ones who knew about Darquesse-  
Her sentenced was cut off when she was enveloped by a tight hug from Skulduggery. She sighed in relief and hugged him back as hard as she could.  
“You’re alive,” he said, “You’re actually alive.”  
They stayed like this for a while until finally, Skulduggery pulled away.  
“And you’re a bloody skeleton!”   
“Look,” she said ignoring him and tapped the symbols on her collarbone. 

Skulduggery’s POV  
“Look,” she said, tapping the symbols on her delicate collarbone. He gasped as her face appeared on top of the skull. Her face. Not a fake one. Hers. He raised a gloved hand and stroked her face, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her face.   
“You are very beautiful my most loyal combat accessory,” he smiled, “Did China do this?”  
She nodded, “I had only recently died so she was able to give me back my original face.”  
“Wow,” he said, “I guess I’m going to have to thank her then.”  
She looked down as she said, “Yeah, I guess you’re going to have to.”  
“Wait, you went to China first?” he asked angrily.  
She looked up as if she had been expecting this kind of reaction, “I had to Skulduggery, I had no clothes, and I had just woken up as a skeleton. You can imagine I was pretty freaked out, and I needed a façade.”  
He nodded, feeling ashamed of his reaction.   
“Are you okay now?” he asked her.   
“Well,” she said, “I think I’m going to need some time to get used to the fact that I am now officially dead and a skeleton. But aside from that, yes, I think I’m okay.”  
“That’s good. And is Darquesse gone?” he asked.  
“Yup, gone for good,” she replied, and then in a softer tone asked, “Are you okay? What happened after I… I died.”  
He took a long pause before answering, “I don’t know. When you died, I became nothing, I just sat alone at home and ignored everything. I stopped being a detective and stopped basically, being.”  
He could tell she was getting upset and quickly said, “But I think everything’s going to be okay now, now that you’re back. We can get back to detecting. Oh! Did you know that Nyx and Damien became detectives? Their amazing.”  
She just smiled at him.  
He would have continued talking, but the sound of Ghastly’s voice beckoning everyone to take their seats once again stopped him.   
“Nyx is going to perform a song now, in your honour, and I get to say a few words,” he said nervously.   
“Do you think I should let everyone know that I’m actually not as dead as they think I am?” she asked, a smile playing on her lips.   
“Not yet,” he said, “Wait until I’ve said my bit, then we’ll tell everyone. And take off the façade.”  
“Okay,” she said tapping the symbols once more.   
He couldn’t help it, he opened his arms again and hugged her again, more tightly this time.  
“I’m so glad that you’re not dead.”  
“But I am dead,” she said.  
“Oh you know what I mean,” he said, leading her into the ballroom.

Valkyrie’s POV  
This time when Valkyrie took her seat, it was next to Skulduggery. She glanced across the room to catch several people staring at her. Well, they can stare all they like at her and Skulduggery but boy were they going to get a shock when they found out that she wasn’t really dead. As Ghastly continued his speech about her skills as a detective Skulduggery whispered in her ear, “Don’t you feel uncomfortable that he keeps talking about you in the past tense?”  
“Yup,” she whispered back, “its super weird.”  
She refocused her attention to the new person holding the microphone to find that it was Nyx. She looked very pretty today, and Valkyrie was glad to see that she wasn’t wearing mourning clothes like a lot of other people were, but a nice blue dress.   
“Um, my name is Nyx, and although I didn’t know Valkyrie as well as most of you did, she was a very good friend of mine,” she cleared her throat and continued, “So I’d like to sing you a song today, seeing as that is my forte, and it was written by Valkyrie herself.”  
What? She couldn’t have possibly found it… the journal where she wrote all her poems in. They weren’t song lyrics, but they were still private.  
“This song is called ‘Wings’ and I believe that this song is from her to all of you,” Nyx said.  
O. M. G. Wings?! She had written it for everyone… but in the end, it had really been for Skulduggery.  
Skulduggery nudged her, “Are you okay?”  
She nodded as Nyx’s beautiful voice filled the room.  
I can be so negative, sometimes  
My own worst enemy, sometimes  
Even at my lowest lows,  
You still had hope  
When I wanna quit,   
You won’t let me   
When I’m falling down,   
You’ll catch me,   
You pick me up,   
Yeah you fix me up,  
Now I’m on my way and I’m strong enough to say:  
Valkyrie’s jaw dropped at the beautiful melody behind her words and closed it as Nyx continued with what seemed like her own version of Valkyrie’s poem.  
You gave me wings, and taught me to fly  
When I was out there on my own  
You gave me wings, and taught me to fly  
And now I need to know if you wanna fly  
Cause I wanna fly  
Yeah  
You and me me and you  
The higher the better  
Forever until the end.  
Valkyrie gasped at the last 3 words. Her and Skulduggery’s words. If she had a heart it would be going crazy right now.  
Skulduggery tilted his head at her.  
“I wrote that as a poem for you,” she whispered.  
He placed his gloved hand on top of hers and stood up to say his speech.  
OMG OMG OMG OMG.   
A million thoughts raced through her mind all seeming to shout the same thing: What would Skulduggery say? Nothing prepared her for what he did end up saying.

 

Skuduggery’s POV  
Skulduggery wasn’t just nervous. He was really nervous. He held his speech in his shaking hand as he made his way to the front of the room. He took a glance down at his speech, before tearing it in two. A written speech was planned, and he knew that rarely anything that was planned was any good.  
The audience seemed shocked when he ripped it, but he ignored them as he picked up the microphone.  
“Valkyrie Cain was a pain in the butt,” he began, but was interrupted by Ghastly.  
“Skulduggery,” he snapped, but Skulduggery waved him away.  
“She never listened to what anyone told her, she made her own rules. She didn’t pay any attention to anyone who told her that she was too young, or that she wasn’t good enough. She was persistent and no matter what people said, she managed to achieve the impossible. So yes, when she refused to listen to anything I said, it was a pain in the butt, but it’s also one of the reasons I’m in love with her.”  
“She always wanted to protect people, she’s kind, loving and thoughtful. She put her life on the line for me almost every single day, as a detective and as a friend. She is amazing. She is my most loyal combat accessory. And I love her. Until the end.”  
The whole room was silent until he finally spoke, “And she’s also alive.”

Valkyrie’s POV  
The audience broke out in a wave of murmuring and whispering, and she knew that this was her cue to step forward. She shuffled past Nyx and Damien, who of course, still didn’t know who the heck she was and took the microphone from Skulduggery. She tried to gulp, but then remembered that she couldn’t and stared at the silent crowd before her.  
“Hi my name is Valkyrie Cain, and I have risen from the dead,” she said dramatically. Skulduggery looked at her and tilted his head ever so slightly. She shrugged.  
“We know the story of how Skulduggery became a living skeleton after he died, but it was a bit different for me,” she said softly.   
She then explained everything to them, Darquesse, Mevolent, meeting Nyx and the final battle of Darquesse. She also told them about her ‘resurrection.’   
She was surprised by how relieved she felt after telling everyone, she felt lighter. Suddenly she felt hands on her shoulders, head and legs. Oh my gosh, were they attacking her?! She looked around her to find the opposite. All of her friends surrounded her, each with a hand resting on her body. They all smiled at her, some with tears in their eyes. She felt Skulduggery reach for her hand and she gripped it tightly.   
It was Nyx who then spoke, “Welcome back Val.”  
Then all of them chorused, “Welcome back.”  
She smiled, everything was perfect.


End file.
